Digital Eden
by largefish8
Summary: Full summary can be found inside. Please read and review. Co-authored with my partner in crime, Cydra.
1. Chapter 1

**Digimon or the tamers are not my property…they belong to Bandai.**

**Likewise, the universe of EVE Online belongs to CCP studios**

**Matt and Dante belong to me…**

_**Summary: **__**25 years ago, the Caldari Corporation, Cerberus Industries, made a find that could have rocketed them up to the same level of wealth as the legendary O.R.E corporation.**_

The find, a Terrestrial planet on the far end of a stable wormhole in the Shihuken star system, was found. Inhabited by lifeforms known as Digimon, first contact was a marvellous success. The corporation and the Digimon were able to live peacefully, allowing mining crews to live planet-side while mining barges farmed the asteroid belts.

This ended when the last asteroid was exhausted. Cerberus turned their hungry eyes upon the rich resources of the Digimons homeworld. At first the digimon were chased away by the apparent superior forces of Cerberus's private military but this ended as the populace rallied and began to wreck mining operations.

Requesting aid from CONCORD was out of the question as what Cerberus was doing was highly illegal. However it was only a matter of time before a Capsuleer or an exploring frigate would discover them. Once that happened, CONCORD would obliterate and imprison them.

In desperation they turned to the almost mythical Jovian empire, masters of genetic manipulation. Their plan was to create a army of digimon/human hybrids that would allow them to more easily crush the locals. However the corporate board does not want an untested method used...so they have tricked a Capsuleer into bringing suitable test subjects...but they have no intention of releasing him from the contract upon delivery...

What will become of these hybrids? Can they save the digimon world from Cerberus?

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 1**

A small Amarr transport cruiser was floating through the galaxy. On board was a single girl, about 17-18 years old with purple eyes, and brown hair held up in a spiky ponytail. She would have been quite pretty if she weren't scowling and grumbling.

The ship's destination was Sarum Prime 3's orbital facility, the largest hub for industrial haulers, empire ships and what the girl was looking for, Capsuleer ships.

As soon as the cruiser landed, the girl stomped off, muttering to herself, "I'll show them. 'Don't know what's best for me', huh? I'll prove them wrong."

She stopped as she saw the sizee of the station. It was even more crowded then the capital back home. Pilots and traders could be seen, haggling for contracts, selling and buying goods. The Capsuleers could easily be spotted, standing apart in their own groups separate from the rest of the station's inhabitants. The girl had taken every test to join humanities elite, to be a Capsuleer. Her family had stepped in at the last moment, denying her from taking the last test, quoting how it was 'illegal to clone a member of a house.

They had told her that she was 'too important' to be out risking her neck for lesser people. But she could clearly tell by 'too important' that they just really want to her to find a husband and produce future heirs.

Most of the Capsuleers didn't even give her a second glance when she went up to them. She went into one of the small bars to watch and wait. She was shocked when a Gallente boy slightly older then her sat down. "Let me guess; looking to join a ship's crew. Never knew the Amarr lords n ladies let their kids do the tests. Last I heard all Amarr Capsuleers were in the navy first," he said.

The girl sniffed haughtily and said, "I don't need my parent's permission to go anywhere. I can do whatever I want."

"Heh...nice policy, just what I like in a girl," said, taking his hat off to reveal a metal socket in the back of his neck. "So...why join my crew?" the Capsuleer said, sounding amused.

The girl gaped for a minute and said, "Sorry, I didn't recognize you as the captain. I'd thought the captain would be more...battle-scarred."

"You shoulda seen my last clone," said the Capsuleer, pressing a few buttons to pay for the drinks. "So, I'll tell you what I tell everyone: I'm immortal, you're not, you still sure?"

The girl considered for a minute before saying, "Well, it's a lot better than what my parents would prefer me to do. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have some cousins that they could pass their fortune to."

"So, what's your name, Kid?" said the Capsuleer.

The girl glared at him and said, "Don't call me a kid, especially when you're only a few years older than I am."

"I was born 800 years ago, Kid," said the Capsuleer, in an amused voice. He noticed the kid's shocked look. "So, what's your name? Best know if I can't call you 'kid', kid," he said The girl quickly cleared her face of emotion and said, "Rika Nonaka. And who am I serving under?"

"Captain Lynch. People call me the Traveler," said Lynch, "Get your things to the Thrasher Class destroyer in Bay 31. We're leaving in one hour. Don't be late."

Rika stared in awe as Captain Lynch got up and walked off. She knew the Capsuleers were a veritable bunch, but she didn't think she'd be working for the famous Traveler.

--

When she saw the Minmatar destroyer in bay 31, she still couldn't believe it. "All the wealth of a Capsuleer and he can't fly anything better than a half rusted Minmatar junkheap?" she muttered.

A Gallente in a technician's uniform walked by her aboard. "You didn't have to sign up. This is just one of his ships," he said, laughing as the Amarr glared.

Rika said, "I never said I was quitting. I just thought he'd take care of his ships better, perpetually reincarnating or not." "It's tougher then it looks." said the technician.

Rika glared and walked onto the ship, almost bumping into a Minmatar. "Oh, pardon me, miss," he said. The guy was about the same age as Rika. He stood a head taller than her and had brown spiky hair as well as blue eyes. "You must be a last minute recruit," he said.

Rika glared at him. "Why should you care?" she said.

The Minmatar boy smirked. "Name's Ryo. The captain's been hiring at every station he docked at, at least since he hired me. You're the fourth person he hired."

"Sounds like he's not very picky," said Rika.

Ryo carried on smirking. "I was about to say the same thing." A hologram of Lynch appeared behind them. "Now then, kiddies. Play nicely."

Rika jumped, but Ryo wasn't fazed. "Don't worry, Captain," he said, "Just showing the new recruit around."

"Cool, introduce her to the others and give her the warp pills. We're getting underway shortly," said Lynch, his shape fading.

Ryo offered his arm and said, "Shall we?"

Rika gave a haughty sniff and said, "I don't think so." She walked on into the ship. Ryo shrugged and went after her.

--

The ship only had a small crew, about 20 adults in a mix from all the four empires. There were two other kids though, a Gallentian called Takato was the first to be introduced and another Minmatar called Henry.

Takato and Henry were also in Rika and Ryo's age group. Henry looked like the eldest of the small group and had blue-black hair and grey eyes. Takato had brown messy hair and redish eyes. He also wore a pair of goggles on his forehead.

Matt did his appearance act again behind them, smirking when almost everyone jumped. "Why are you doing that?" said Rika.

Matt grinned childishly. "It's a perk."

"Is there a reason you're paging us?" demanded Rika.

"Well, we got a job...from a Caldari Company. We're doing a...delivery to a wormhole in the Shihuken system," said Matt.

"Wait a minute," said Henry, "Is that where that company Cerberus is?"

Takato nodded. "It was in the Scope. They discovered a huge amount of Zydrine crystal there. Why are we going there?" he said.

"We'll be delivering materials and staff to them," said Matt, "Probably supplies for their experimentation or mining."

Rika didn't look convinced.

"Doesn't it seem kind of odd that a Capsuleer ship's pretty much being hired as a supply wagon?" asked Henry.

"It happens, anything from slaves for the Amarr theology council to robotics for a Gallantean corporation," said Matt. He pointed at a bottle on the table. "Take the pills. We have 2 hours of jumps ahead of us."

"I am not looking forward to this," said Takato, "10 credits say your body will gag before you can get them down."

A klaxon rang to signify the warp engine heating up before space outside rippled as the ship formed a warp bubble.

--

Kurata looked at the communication from his contact as his chief scientist came in. "Well...just got a communication. You'll get your test subjects," he said.

Dr. Xander simply looked at him. Jovians had long since bred emotions out their species but it seemed that there was a look of disapproval. "CONCORD will not approve of this. They will say this world belongs to its inhabitants."

"Technically, the inhabitants don't truly exist," said Kurata, "Last time I check, AI's themselves don't have legal rights or even copyrights."

"These are not Rogue drones, this 'WARDEN' is a Sleeper. The actions you want me to do resulted in my exile," said Xander in his cold calculating voice.

"They are still artificial beings," said Kurata, "Our ancestors created them, so we hold dominance over them."

"And the Capsuleer, he will not just stand by and let you do what you wish. He will inform the Assembly. CONCORD will come...and you will most likely die as a result," said Xander.

"Have you forgotten about our backup plan?" said Kurata.

"Ah yes...the clone body. You risk not only the wrath of CONCORD but the Capsuleers as well. It will work, but be careful what you wish. My shuttle leaves in 12 hours. Unless you wish the wrath of Jove, do not try to stop me as you do everyone else," said Xander.

--

Meanwhile, the Capsuleer ship had just finished warping to the Shihuken System. Captain Lynch was perfectly fine, thanks to being a Capsuleer. However, he felt a gnawing sensation in his gut that had nothing to do with warping.

It was guilt. He'd heard stories of how some of the older Capsuleers, such as himself, were prone to...voices. He was hearing one now. '_You hypocrite, you applied to be an immortal, to be a Capsuleer to help people. Do you even know what awaits them? DID YOU ASK?_' said the voice.

Matt shook his head to rid himself of the sensation, but he did make a mental note that he was going to find out what was going on as soon as they landed.

The wormhole to Cerberus Corporations newest 'investment lay ahead...a rippling area of space. Years later, when asked, Matt would agree that he could have saved so much trouble for himself by simply turning around then and there. With a simple mental command, he willed his ship into the wormhole's grip. There was a shudder and the ship vanished from time and space, to reappear lightyears away.

When Matt saw the station, only his extremely extensive experience kept him from being phased. It was humongous, the type that could easily house a thousand people and still have plenty of room for more. The kids however were impressed. Usually the only stations in wormhole space belonged to sleeper drones and they were notorious for not welcoming visitors. Ryo however had seen stations before and had wandered to check the cargo.

The cargo hold was surprisingly bare. There were only a couple of crates there, but they were full of ammunition for the ship's cannons. "I don't get it," said Ryo, "What are we transporting?"

There was a click behind him. Ryo turned to see two of Matt's crew holding Caldari plasma rifles. "Look in a mirror, kid," said one of them and stunned him.

--

"What's taking Ryo so long?" said Takato, "He should have been there and back in 5 minutes tops."

"You're right," said Henry, "There is something weird going on." "Oh, you two are just being paranoid," said Rika.

The ship had flown into the station's main hold. Matt appeared behind them. "Ok...this is the place. Now we offload the cargo," he said, making them jump again.

Takato didn't jump this time. "Have you seen Ryo?"

"You...guys haven't seen him?" said Matt.

"He went down to cargo," said Takato.

Matt suddenly seemed cold. "Cargo?" he said, icily, before seemingly flickering as he sent a communication.

"Yeah, it's odd," said Henry, "He just went down and never came back. There isn't anything dangerous in there, is there?"

"Not really, just ammunition for the autocannons and the missile launcher. The cargo's elsewhere," said Matt.

"And where is that?" asked Rika, "And for that matter, what is it anyways?"

"Well...I'm not exactly sure. The job was to get some personal for the facility, but they wanted people who had taken but failed the Capsuleer tests," said Matt, smiling in a creepy way.

"Wait..." said Rika, "You're not saying we're..."

The door opened and a few of Matt's crew came in. "...the recruits...yup...sorry, kids," said Matt.

"Wait a minute," said Takato, "You can't just crate us like livestock."

Matt shrugged and said, "It's nothing personal. Besides, I bet the job there's not so bad. I hear the Caldari mega-corps pay good. Now, play nice or cause my men do not."

Henry glared at Matt and said, "You have no right to do this."

"Wrong, this is Null security, no CONCORD here," said Matt.

The three teenagers glared at the guards, but without weapons, there wasn't anything they could do. They were reluctantly led away.

--

A while later, Matt's ship was docked in the station. Matt and several of his men had walked off, with the four kids. Kurata and a dozen of his personal security were present. "Nice...good specimens at that," said Kurata. Matt glared coldly. 'Specimens' didn't sound like a job position that was fun.

"I expect that they'll be treated properly," said Matt.

"You could say that," said Kurata.

Matt went to walk by. "Then you won't mind me having a look."

A pair of Kurata's guard stopped Matt. "I mind very much," said Kurata, "This is private property. Please leave."

"Wrong, what'll you do...shoot me?" said Matt, grinning.

Kurata considered it for a minute and said, "Well, your clone-based reincarnation would make that a void threat. But I could still arrange for an unpleasant death like, say, being shot out into the vacuum. It wouldn't kill you permanently, but it would take you a while to get back."

"Not really, kill me and I'll come back in, say...a megathon?" said Matt.

"True," said Kurata, "But nevertheless, I demand you leave. Your business here is concluded."

"No, let me try again. I bet DED would be interested in what's going on here. It would be a shame if someone talked," said Matt.

"Yes, I suppose you're right," said Kurata reluctantly.

Matt grinned and walked by.

--

Kurata said, "Well...you probably heard about our find. A system with passive sleeper drones. It turned out this was made before EVE collapsed."

"Really? What's it like?" asked Matt as he pressed a random button by a display screen. The screen turned on to show what was apparently a drone's point-of-view flying over a green forest. Kurata glared and tried to turn it off. Matt pushed him away. "Oooh...what's this?" teased Matt as the drone flew over the ruins of a spaceport, people visible in the mist.

"Wait a sec," said Matt, "This world's inhabited. You do know that it's forbidden to mine here without a permit from CONCORD, right?"

Kurata glared at Matt and said, "We have a plan to deal with them. That's why we needed the kids."

Matt glared. He had no idea what Kurata had in mind but he knew acting now would just get him and probably the kids killed. He would get better, but they would not. "I think I've seen all I wanted here," said Matt, "I'll be leaving now."

Kurata watched as Matt walked off before calling his security chief. "We're going ahead with Plan B. Make sure our inside man and the ships are ready."

--

Matt headed for his capsule, talking to his first officer as he went. "Set a course for Concord Assembly as soon as we leave dock. Where's Dante?" he said.

"Er, I'm not sure," said the first officer, "I don't think he left the ship."

Matt nodded, climbing into his capsule.

--

Dante had just left the ship...or he would. He was headed for the lifepods. He pressed each pod's launch button as he went till he got to the last one. "Sorry, boss, Kurata pays more." he said, climbing into the last pod.

Matt's ship was heading for the wormhole at full speed. Suddenly, the engines suddenly stuttered and then stopped. Something had shorted them out as well as the weapons.

Matt blinked as he rerouted power from the emergency systems. The sensors all suddenly lit up as two 'Raven' class battleships, sporting the insignia of the Cerberus Corporation appeared. "You know, you don't have to die. Your 'Dante' saw sense, why not you?" said Kurata's voice over the comm.

Matt was shocked about Dante, but he kept a level head. "You're barking up the wrong tree," said Matt, "I have spare bodies, remember?"

"Let's test that." said Kurata and terminated the comm. At the same time a cruise missile from the first Raven hit the side of the ship, stripping its shields and half its armor. The second Raven fired a missile that went right through the ship's hull and blew the ship into two pieces, not counting the countless smaller pieces floating in between.

Matt's thought before his current clone terminated was about not bothering with CONCORD. He'd get a fleet together and park a Titan class down Kurata's throat.

--

Kurata watched as the destroyer exploded violently. "Did we get him?" he said.

The scientist at the other end nodded. "His pattern's downloaded perfectly. We'll find out if it took in a few minutes."

Kurata smirked to himself and said, "Let's see how his ego will take this."

--

Matt opened his eyes to see the familiar look of the inside of a CRU (Clone Rejuvenation Unit). "He won't know what hit him," he muttered.

'Good morning, pilot,' chimed the CRU's computer, "Your Cerberus clone has revived intact." Matt looked confused. He didn't own any clone banks on Cerberus stations.

When the CRU opened up, Matt immediately shut his eyes. It's as if he's spent days in a dark cave and was thrust forward into bright sunlight. He was used to this. It was the same with every clone and he'd been through it before. He shuddered as the memory upload cable in his implant retracted and he pulled himself out the CRU...and lost his balance unexpectedly. A speaker filtered voice turned on, "Ah...you're up, Subject 7."

'Subject 7?' He was a Capsuleer, not a lab experiment. He rubbed his eyes to help them get used to the light. Then he paused. Something about his face did not feel right. It felt longer and scaly. Not to mention his hands felt different too, like there were fingers missing.

Matt managed to get his vision back, hundreds of blurred shapes forming into a wall. He placed a hand out to pull himself up and stopped dead. His hand was not as he remembered it last. It was covered with blue scales and had only four fingers that ended with claws. "Ok..." said Matt uncertainly, "I'm obviously not awake yet. This can't be one of my clones."

"Oh, I'm afraid it is. You see, I don't want CONCORD paying a visit here, but simply killing you would be difficult. You realize how much it cost to hijack your memory download?" said Kurata's voice. Matt glared and gripped his head. All he had to do was break his neck to get out of this mess and back to his proper clone. "Oh...that's not so good. We don't know if you can even download from this body. Play along."

"I don't know what kind of twisted science project this is," said Matt, "But you can forget me helping out in any way."

"Oh, but you will," said Kurata, "You know, it is quite easy to create a clone with a different mind controlling it. In a matter of months, your name could be as good as mud. And I don't think you'll be able to fight this identity theft, especially as you are."

Matt glared but hung his head. Even if he did escape, coming home to a 40 billion bounty from CONCORD was no good.

"Alright, fine," he muttered, "Now can you turn off whatever illusion-creating gizmo you put in this clone? I'd rather think I'm going insane by seeing blue scales on me that no one else can."

"Well, the real challenge was transferring a human mind into a non-human lifeform," said Kurata, smugly.

"What? A non-human...no, no, no. You're not fooling me. You've got me hypnotized or put up some virtual reality that makes me think that I have blue scales. Well it's not gonna work, pal," said Matt.

"Denial is an ugly thing, Mr. Lynch," said Kurata.

"I'm not in denial!" shouted Matt, "Quit screwing with my head and drop this phoney baloney hallucination!"

"Perhaps you'll accept it better if you've actually seen what you've become," said Kurata. Kurata lowered the light to more comfortable levels, allowing Matt to see his reflection properly. Matt could not think of anything to say, but the image in front of him; it was real as the floor he was on.

What he saw was what looked like a large anthropomorphic lizard that had blue scales everywhere except for his chest and stomach. "Oh, I almost forgot," said Kurata, "Your new body comes with armor. You'll find it in the trunk by the CRU."

Matt turned and walked numbly towards the chest and opened it. Inside was a helmet, gloves and upper and lower leg guards. A nasty saber came out the top of the helmet/mask. They were all done up with a flame color scheme. "Tacky," Matt muttered, looking at the straps, "You don't really expect me to where this stuff, do you?"

"Either that or walk around naked," said Kurata.

Matt grumbled and said, "Speaking of which, you forgot to put pants in here, dummy." Matt didn't get an answer and started attaching the leg guards. He couldn't feel the tell tale vibrations of ships in dock or similar. He could feel shaking on par with a surface anti-matter reactor...a ground facility then. As he was putting the gauntlets on, he noticed that there were only three claws and they didn't look very opposable. Matt decided against wearing them for now, using their straps to tie them to his waist. All they were good for were as weapons.

--

Rika squinted in pain as her SAT (Suspended Animation Tube) opened with a pneumatic hissing. "Urgh...that stupid two-timing Capsuleer...when I get home..." she muttered.

She stumbled forward, only to fall over due to a completely new center of gravity. "Ow! What did that quack put into me?" she mumbled. Then she felt something brushing her legs. She looked back and saw a large fox's tail was growing from her spine and was brushing against her digitgrade legs that also resembled a fox's.

Rika stared for a second. 'Ok...must stay calm..." she thought.

--

Takato was woken up by two things: the first was a bloodcurdling scream and the second was the sound of his SAT opening. He winced at the sound of the screaming. For some reason, his ears were a lot more sensitive than normal. The sound disorientated him. That, and his rapidly-changed center of gravity, caused him to trip forward. The first thing he noticed was the anthro fox with yellow and white fur who was doing the screaming.

The two orderlies behind a false mirror watched numbly as Subjects 2 and 3 seemed to be having a screaming match. As another SAT opened, the first orderly, by unspoken agreement, turned off the audio on the monitors.

Henry groaned and said, "Will you guys keep it down? You're given me a splitting head-" His voice trailed off when he noticed the ears he was putting his hands over were ridiculously longer than before.

The orderlies watched as the third subject also joined in the air of sheer panic. "Told you...pay up," said his fellow employee.

That's when SAT #4 opened up. Ryo was completely out of it, since the last thing he remembered was being stunned in the cargo hold. As he stumbled out, he bumped into Henry, causing both of them to fall forward onto Takato and Rika. Ryo's new form was similar to that of a purple pterosaur. Despite everything, he wasn't worried. The drone network at Lynch's main base was an intelligent A.I with a vicious sense of humor. After you'd seen them, nothing worried you.

He looked at his new teammates, which were a yellow fox, a red dinosaur, and a beige rabbit with green markings. "Ok..." said Ryo, "Is this some kind of drug trip?"

"I don't think so. I really hope not," said Henry.

A speaker activated. "Ok...please comply...how are you feeling?"

"HOW AM I FEELING?!?" shrieked Rika, "I've been conned into a mad scientist's lab, I've been turned into some freaky fox thing, and I'm, I'm, I'M NAKED!" That last remark was made as she suddenly covered her chest with her arms and crossed her legs.

"Your form's gloves are in a chest beside your SAT," said the bored voice.

"GLOVES?!? I don't need gloves! I need a shirt. I need pants. How am I supposed to cover anything with just gloves, you pervert!"

"You're not human anymore. Get a grip," said the voice in the same tone, "You are to head out into the compound outside." A door opened, a forest visible beyond a wall outside."

Rika, it's ok," said Ryo, "These forms have nothing that need to be hidden. There's nothing to worry about."When Rika noticed the lack of breasts on her chest, she relaxed slightly. She opened up the trunk and put on the purple gloves that were inside.

"Let's get this over with," she grumbled, "Not like I'd want to stay in here."

Beyond the door was a yard, a large wall around it. Another of them, a blue scaled reptilian was leaning against the wall. He looked over at them then as quickly looked away.

"Well, at least we're not the only ones," said Takato. He walked over the blue lizard and said, "Hi, my name's Takato. What's yours?"

"Erm...I don't remember," said the reptilian.

--

Matt gulped when he'd seen them come in. He had his suspicions confirmed when one of them introduced himself as Takato.

The foxlike one glared at him. "You seem...familiar somehow," she said with Rika's voice.

"Never met you," said Matt, innocently, the same voice he used when talking to customs at stations.

"Now that you mentioned it, his voice does sound familiar," said Henry, who was the rabbit/dog/thing.

Matt glared. "Who do I sound like?" he said, getting an idea.

"Someone who was responsible for getting us in this mess in the first place," said Rika, not noticing her tail was lashing.

"The last thing I remember was being aboard a thrasher class. There was an explosion," said Matt.

"Wait a sec, fellas," said the last one who Matt had estimated to be Ryo, "This guy could have just been one of the crewmembers."

"But how did the ship get destroyed?" asked Takato.

Rika huffed and said "Well, I'm glad that rat Matt got what he deserved." Nobody noticed their new friend's eye twitch. "Maybe he was misled?" he said. "Wait, is that an implant on your neck?" said Henry.

The lizard quickly covered it up with one paw and said, "So? You all got one too."

The others all put hands to the back of their necks, feeling the covered metal sockets. "Those nutters turned us into freak Capsuleers?" said Ryo, confused.

Matt shook his head. "No...he didn't." "How do you know?" said Rika. "I know..." said Matt darkly.

"Well, what could they possibly want with us?" asked Henry, "I don't think they want ransom from our families. What kind of place is this, anyways?"

Matt looked around. Most of the buildings looked like they had been restored. "I haven't the slightest idea," said Matt, "But I'm guessing these new bodies have some sort of connection."

"Probably," said Ryo, "But what kind of connection? I don't even know what I am."

The group turned as a dozen members of Cerberus's personal security force, came out, followed by a familiar face. The others looked confused as Matt clenched his fists in anger. Dante smirked. "Ok, welcome to your new species. You are going to help us take this planet for the corporation. That is, if you want to have 10 fingers again," he said.

"What have you done to us?" growled Rika, baring her claws.

The guards all raised rifles at once. "Oh...don't be fooled. You may be tougher, faster, stronger, but a plasma blast will ventilate you as easily as everyone else," said Dante, smugly before seeing Matt walking forward. "Oh, tough one, think fast," he said and pulled out a plasma pistol, shooting Matt in the shoulder and sending him sprawling.

Matt winced and grabbed at his shoulder. He glanced at it to see the wound, but was surprised to see that his skin was flickering like a TV screen with bad reception before it went back to normal.

"These lifeforms you become, they're made from a mix of nanites and flesh and blood, old terra technology," said Dante.

Matt wiped off the blood from his hand. The wound was healing up, but it was still bloody. "I fail to see how turning us into talking animals could help us with taking over this place," he said.

"We're not sure how they got here, but they're tough. Not to mention there's a rogue drone AI called WARDEN helping them. You get to be our test: to see if you can fool them, then we send in troopers," said Dante. Matt glared and to his own shock, growled. Dante simply leveled his gun again. "Want one through the head instead?" he offered.

Matt growled, but didn't do anything. "Good, you learn quick. Of course, you've got other things to learn, like how your new bodies can fight and more. I'm sure you'll figure it all out," said Dante.

**End of chapter one…**

**Please leave a review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**EVE Online is property of CCP Studios**

**Digimon is property of Bandai…I think.**

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 2**

Matt tossed and turned before slowly opening his eyes. The last thing he remembered for sure had been his ship exploding around him. There must have been a hallucinogen in his CRU. Then he felt his tail twitch. Unfortunately, that meant that it wasn't a hallucination, seeing as how he didn't have one before.

"I hate my existence," he muttered before sitting up and rubbing his eyes. A quick look around confirmed it, he hadn't dreamed it. "Really hate my existence," he said again. "Eh, might as well get a few more winks before..." Matt's attempted snooze was interrupted when someone started banging a pan against the horn on his helmet.

Matt's eye opened, bloodshot. "Ok...whoever's doing that is lunchmeat," he said angrily. Matt turned to see Dante and three of his men, knocking on the helmet. "Oh...it's you." he said, glaring daggers at the traitor who had landed him in this mess.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," said Dante, "Oh wait, you're not very handsome anymore, are you?"

Matt glared. "How about I test how sharp these claws are?" he said, angrily, marching towards Dante who raised a hand. His companions all aimed at Matt.

"Very well, then I should test how much damage your body can take before it derezzes or whatever these creatures do," said Dante.

Matt glared. "Your luck won't last forever," he growled.

--

A few seconds later, Matt was led to where the others are. They apparently got similar rude awakenings as they wouldn't stop glaring at the guards. "Good morning, the good doctor wants to see you all," said Dante, smirking.

"'Good doctor'? Yeah right," grumbled Takato, "I've seen acupuncturists who are less painful."

Dante grinned at this. "I gotta remember that one," he muttered.

Kurata walked in, flanked by two security drones. "Now then, it's time you 5 learnt you are worth the investment. You're no good if your disguises are seen through," he said.

Matt looked confused, "Disguise?"

"Your new bodies. You're meant to go about on this planet undetected," said Kurata.

"Wait a sec," said Rika, "There are more creatures like us out there?"

"A lot more, if there wasn't we'd have strip-mined this place years ago," said Kurata, "Not to mention the...we'll get to them another time."

"So you expect us to march out and... What exactly are we supposed to be doing?" said Henry.

"Well...it's never a good idea to come up with a product or weapon without a test. If this works, our men can manipulate the locals into agreeing to relocate," said Kurata

.

Matt glared. "You mean into 'State care'," he said in a disgusted voice.

"However you want to phrase it," said Kurata, "If you're to convince them you're not actually one of them, I suggest you start your training...now."

"How will you do that? You and what army?" said Rika.

--

Matt was the last pushed out the compound gates. "Kid, never say 'you and what army?' to a Caldari CEO. He just points out the window," he said as Dante shut the gate on them.

Rika glared at him and said, "What did you call me?"

Matt looked a bit confused before saying, "Nothing."

Rika didn't let off her glare. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Me? Ge- I mean, Ma- er... Blaze."

The others did not look convinced. "What?" said Matt/Blaze.

"Well..." said Ryo, "What are we supposed to be doing out here anyways?"

Matt/Blaze looked down to see they were on an overgrown road. It was only visible cause tracks had uncovered the tarmac. "Follow the dirty road?" he suggested

Rika grumbled to herself, "Where do they get the nerve sending me out onto this backwater world. I'm probably going to get burrs in my fur."

"Just follow the road then," said Matt.

--

An hour later and the group still had not found anyone. "Ok, I think Kurata was talking out his exhaust port about other people," began Matt.

"Can we take a break?" said Rika, "My paws are killing me."

Matt nodded. "Yeah. I'm knackered...wait...someone's following us."

The group tensed, expecting some big monster to come out and eat them. Then Henry heard rustling in the bushes and slowly turned to look towards there. Suddenly, a scary face popped out and went "BOOGA-BOOGA!"

The group jumped back in shock. Matt glared and pulled back imaginary sleeves, ready to dropkick the now laughing imp thing when Rika beat him to it.

Rika picked up the creature by the bandana around his neck and growled, "What was that for?"

"Ha, ha, ha, you shoulda seen the look on your faces, fox-face," laughed the imp creature.

Matt wouldn't have survived as long as he had, clones or no clones, if he hadn't learnt when to spot incoming agony when it approached. He closed his eyes as Rika punched the creature in the face so hard he hit the tree behind him...10 feet behind him.

Takato stared at the dazed creature and said, "What is that thing?"

"Probably the wildlife Kurata's been talking about," said Ryo, "Sure is odd looking."

"Looked in a mirror lately?" said Henry.

"Look who's talking," replied Ryo.

Matt picked up the creature. "I know what to do," he said and glared at the creature. "Ok, imp features, wakey-wakey," he said.

The creature shook his head and said, "Yeesh, that's some punch you got. You been takin' boxin' lessons or something?"

Matt grabbed the creatures head and twisted its head to point at Rika who despite her recent stress relief, looked ready for round two. "Wrong, we're new here. Would you like to be our guide, or our punching bag?" he said evilly.

"Ok, ok, lighten up. Don't they have jokers back where you come from?"

Matt thought about this. For some reason, the track of thought went to the drone AI back at his station. "Hmm...depends on the definition," he said.

"Whatever. Might as well stick with you guys. You like you'll be entertainin'. The name's Impmon."

"Blaze," said Matt, dropping Impmon.

"Blaze, eh?" said Impmon, "Kind of an odd name. Hey, how comes you're not wearing all yer armor?" Matt responded with a red hot glare that made Impmon shut his mouth.

Takato walked forward and offered his claw to shake. "I'm Takato. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet ya, pineapple head," said Impmon.

Takato looked a bit down at that. Ryo walked forward. "I'm Ryo," he said.

"Ah great, three big lizards in the same spot," said Impmon, "There goes the neighborhood."

Matt said sweetly, "Is that you in stamping range of my foot?"

"Er, hi, I'm Henry," said Henry quickly before whispering, "Be careful. Some of these guys are really whacky, and not in the funny way."

Matt glared. "Oh look, now you're in stamping range," he said threateningly

Impmon gulped and moved away from Matt. Then he looked at Rika and said, "And who's this foxy lady?"

Rika glared and hit Impmon. "The name is Rika, heir to house Nonako," she said.

Impmon rubbed his head and said, "Oh great, just what we need, a spoiled heiress making dead weight."

Matt sighed. "He looks like he's in a dropkicking mood," he whispered to her. A second later, Impmon was in a tree...without climbing it.

"Uh, is there anywhere to go around here?" asked Ryo, "Just seems to be empty forest in every direction."

"There's a village up the road, but not many people go there cause of the humans," he said.

"Er, humans?" said Takato, "What are humans? Um, are they something to eat?"

"They came here 25 years ago. started tryin' to dig up the place. We used to have a moon, ya know," said Impmon.

Matt nodded. "Mining barges, probably exhumer class," he said absently

"Well, if we wanna get anywhere, we better get movin'," said Impmon.

Matt nodded. "Group meeting," he said and pushed the gang away while Impmon was climbing down. "Can we trust this creep?" he whispered

"I'm not sure," said Henry, "He seems to be looking for another laugh."

"Well, would we want to back to Kurata?" said Takato.

"We can't ditch him that fast, though I have a plan. We will have to go back. He has all the rides home," said Matt, pointing out a flaw in legging it

"Not to mention our real bodies," said Rika.

"If he still has them. He did double cross me...my boss," said Matt.

Rika growled and said, "Don't talk to me about double crosses. That's how we got in this mess in the first place."

"Look, that idiot gave us Capsuleer implants, but I'm the only one who ever flew a ship," said Matt, "We just play along for now." Then Matt turned around and spoke to Impmon, "Lead the way."

--

Impmon led the small group to a small riverside village. Dozens of different creatures were all over the place. A few nodded at Impmon in greeting but at least one knew him properly. "You got a nerve, Impmon," said a nasty-looking monster that looked like a small reptile in combat fatigues.

"Hey, Commandramon, how's it been?" said Impmon.

"You made me look a fool. I told you I'd upload you if I ever saw you again," said Commandramon.

"Oh yeah, I thought you were being dramatic," said Impmon.

"Wrong, dead wrong," said Commandramon, pulling what was clearly a gun out.

Matt glared. "I know he's a jerk but we'd better help him." he said, unclipping his armored gloves and putting them and his helmet on.

Then Rika snatched the gun out of Commandramon's hands. "Guns aren't for kiddies," she said.

Commandramon glared. "What this? Barely-hatched Rookies?" he said and punched Rika. He turned to attack Impmon and got a shock when he got a look at Matt. "An Armor...erm...ok...I was just kidding."

"Maybe," said Matt, "But let's not take chances." With one swift kick, Commandramon was sent flying to the other side of the village. "I used to love Grav-ball back home," Matt said happily.

"Heh, nice to see someone else getting punted instead," said Impmon.

"I can arrange flight travel for you if you don't watch your mouth," said Rika.

Impmon gulped. "Duly noted."

Just then, they heard some cheering in the background. "What's going on?" asked Ryo.

"Sounds like Arbormon's won another one," said Impmon.

A crowd of villagers were in the square of the village. Standing in the center was a creature that looked like it was made of wood. Despite his structure, his armor looked very strong. "Ey, it was nothin', alright," he said in a very Rocky-like voice, "I just gave 'em a jab and a blow and they come down like dried flowers."

"Who the hell is the talking twig?" muttered Matt to Ryo.

"That's Arbormon, the Legendary Warrior of Wood," said Impmon, "He's the chief of the Wood Tribe and the forest's his territory. He's been smashin' them dumb machines since they've arrived."

"Ah, no wonder he's pissed," muttered Matt, thinking about Kurata.

"Hope it was expensive," said Ryo.

"Better watch your mouth around him," said Impmon, "This is hardly as tough as he can get." "And he looks plenty tough already," said Henry.

"Huh...how old is he?" said Matt, forgetting himself for the usual 'I'm 800 years old' trump card.

"This guy's the reincarnation of AncientTrojamon himself," said Impmon, "He dates back to the beginning of the Digital World."

Matt winced. "Ow..." he said to himself.

--

Sometime later, the group made it back to the base. Understandably, Impmon didn't come with them. The reason was not what you would have thought. He had made the wrong comment at the wrong moment and, if Matt was any judge, still had not returned from orbit. You could say this…Rika's new form had a mean kick on it.

Kurata was waiting for them. "Now then...did they fall for it? What did you see?" he said.

Matt said, "We saw what keeps smashing your drones. You keep getting beat by a giant tree man." He laughed loudly.

"A giant...what?" said Kurata.

"A tree man...called Arbormon..." said Matt, barely holding back tears of laughter. The others had already caught the same humor bug and were laughing at Kurata's expression.

Kurata was visibly annoyed, but kept his cool. "A Digimon, I might have known," he said, "Well, you kids have done your work today. Time to come in to roost."

The gang looked relieved when Kurata's computer pad turned on. "Well...not yet," he said. He nodded to his men and they went inside. But the problem was they shut the door before the gang could get in. "There's another problem. You see, there's a rogue drone hive, but they don't attack the creatures. Perfect opportunity as a swarm goes by here every night. We'll be back in 4 hours."

"Wait a sec," said Henry, "They're leaving us out here alone to see whether some crazy robots would try to kill us or not?"

Ryo and Matt both looked worried. Matt had faced rogue drones before. They were insanely territorial and very deadly. The other kids had only heard survivor stories; the reality was much worse.

"Ok...everyone...keep an eye up," said Matt. He could already hear a musical whistling in the distance. Suddenly, Matt heard a metallic clicking and spun around. A large octopus-like drone was floating a few feet behind him, watching the group with its many red eyes. Matt yelped and jumped back, falling back. The drone followed his movement with insect-like curiosity before landing, using its arms to move spiderlike around.

--

Kurata watched the view as more of the drones landed around his subjects. "Hmm, what are they doing?" he said as the drones seem less aggressive then worried. He'd seen this activity in some of the spaceborn hives. He would see the same activity when space-borne rogue drones were helping an injurted fellow drone to safety. He had not seen footage of how the drones interacted with Digimon. As a matter of fact, he heard reports that the drones left the Digimon pretty much alone. This type of encounter was completely new to him.

--

The drones' central consciousness was known as WARDEN. He could not remember how he had ended up on this world. It had been millennia since the last of his creators had died, but his last order had been to see the welfare of their project. These five subjects were defective, but repairable. The nanites making up their structure seem depleted. A simple sustenance of nanites should restore to proper working order.

--

Matt hadn't felt this frightened since just before his first 'death'. The pincers at the end of each of the drones' tentacles looks lethal and he gulped as one came very close to his face. Just when he was about to consign himself to death, the pincers opened like a flower and a grey mist was shot in his face. The rest of the drones opened their pincers and started exhaling the grey mist on the others.

Matt coughed and waved the mist away. The drones had backed off, as if admiring their work before leaping up into the air. Matt glared and grabbed a rock to throw before looking up and dropping it again. About 300 of the drones were circling like a shoal of fish.

The others also froze. "Who would have thought it would end like this?" said Takato.

"Actually, the fact that we're Digimon is the only surprising part," said Ryo.

"And the robots?" said Henry.

"You haven't seen Matt's place," said Ryo.

The drones all slowly scattered, leaving the group alone. "What did those...things spray at us?" said Rika.

"I don't know it could have been anything," said Ryo, "Exhaust, musk, maybe reproductive materials."

Rika cried out loudly in disgust and said, "Ugh! Those things sprayed their eggs on me?!" She franticly tried to rub whatever they sprayed off of her.

Matt grinned. "No, they make themselves out of minerals, usually Veldspar," he said.

"What's Veldspar?" asked Takato.

Matt shrugged. "Asteroid ore, pretty common," he said.

The door into the complex opened and Dante and his men peered out cautiously. "Are they gone?" he said.

"Yes, they're gone," said Henry, "They just sprayed us with spores and left."

"Henry, they're robots, no organic functions," said Ryo.

Matt said abscently, "Except for that one time in Tana...that was weird," he said and looked at the now-pale Henry. "But...that's not here," he said uncertainly.

"Well, that's fortunate," said Kurata, "Well, we have to record data now. Everyone back to your bunkers."

"You mean it this time?" said Rika, "You're not going to interrupt me in the middle of my shower to send me berry-picking, right?"

Kurata sighed. "Just go back to your quarters," he said.

--

Matt had gotten the group together. "Ok, I got a good idea how we can all get out of here...with limbs attached."

"By limbs, you're referring ones that have five digits at the end, right?" said Rika.

"No, but we need not worry, observe," said Matt, pulling Ryo up and pointing to the socket on the back of his neck, "Capsuleers use these to control ship, and jump bodies, probably how we ended up like this anyhow. Plus, we're living breathing evidence for CONCORD."

"Mhm, and when we're done we'll be shipped off to a science lab," said Rika.

"Probably, but after we have our minds transferred back to human bodies," said Matt. The gang nodded to this. "Hell, even if CONCORD dun help, I bet your parents will want to send an 'Abaddon' battleship to explain their grievances," said Matt to Rika.

"Probably," said Rika, "I doubt they'll want any heirs that I could produce now."

"You could be a Capsuleer. You got the implant," suggested Matt.

Suddenly Kurata's voice came over the intercom, "Oh, I wouldn't sign up for any plan of his. After all, wasn't it Matt's fault you gotten into this mess in the first place?"

Matt froze at this as everyone looked confused. "He's dead though. You blew him up and used one of his crew as a test subject. Eh, Blaze?" said Ryo.

"Not quite," said Kurata, "I blew up the ship, but I downloaded Captain Lynch's brain into that Flamedramon body. Of course, who could blame him for not wanting to expose himself?"

Matt gulped as the others all turned to look at him with looks ranging from Takato's hurt look to Rika's glaring. Rika walked forward angrily. "You two faced..." she began.

Matt started to say, "I was going to report to the DED..." and was punched in the gut.

Matt winced as the all the air was knocked out of him. "Ok, I admit I deserved that," said Matt weakly, "But if you let me explain thoroughly..." Another punch landed across the side of his face, knocking him down. "Ok...this sucks..." he said.

Rika looked ready to claw Matt's eyes out when the guards came through the door. "Ok, that's enough roughhousing for one night," said Dante.

Rika had to be dragged back and Matt was helped out to another room. "Man, she did a number on you," said the trooper helping him. Matt looked to see another Capsuleer socket in the guy's neck.

"Hmm, I don't recall you around the base before," said Matt, "Just joined up?"

"How did you know?" asked the Capsuleer.

"Any Capsuleer woulda ditched Dr Sansha's little group ages ago," said Matt.

"Well, I kinda got into some money troubles," said the Capsuleer, "The name's Mark by the way."

"Nice to meet you. What kind of trouble?" said Matt.

Mark sighed, "The sort made when blood raiders blow my industrial transport up along with all its cargo."

"Ah, been having a bad luck streak, I see," said Matt, "Though I can't say my luck's much better right now."

Mark nodded. "Same for me. so you used to be a Capsuleer too then," he said.

Matt nodded. "Yeah. Got tricked into being his personal recruiter."

"And you're part of the staff," remarked Mark.

"Well, yes, at least until those guys back there tear me apart," said Matt, "Not that I'd blame them."

Mark opened the door to an empty quarters and helped Matt in. "So...what happened then?" he said. Matt sighed. What did he have to lose?

"Well, as soon as I learned Kurata was planning on ousting the inhabitants of this world from their homes, I was going to tell CONCORD about this but Kurata bribed one of my men to rig my ship and leave me defenseless against a pair of Ravens. Next thing I knew, I'm a big blue lizard."

Mark sighed. "Let me guess, the other four were the people you brought," he said. Matt nodded, gloomily. "Well, I suggest you try to make up to them," said Mark, "You can't afford to have possible friends mad at you, especially out here."

"Ok, what would you do in their place?" said Matt coldly.

Mark thought about. "Strap them to the front of my interceptor and go for a joyride through an ion storm...oh."

--

Later that night, Matt slipped out. He wasn't quite sure he'll be able to sneak around in his current form, but he was going to at least make an effort.

Kurata had given the group several corridors to themselves but as Matt found out when he turned the corner, they had a very large blastdoor. "Dammit..." he muttered, clenching his fist and jumping as a covering of flames appeared around the armored glove. "Ok...that's new," said Matt, "I had no idea I could do that. Well, let's see if I can torch my way out of here." Matt aimed his flaming hand at the wall and concentrated. A fireball shot out, knocking the door down just as the lights went out.

--

Kurata was watching this on the monitor. "Hmm, so he's trying to escape, eh? Oh well, I'll let him go a little farther before bursting his bubble."

Another camera view showed that Ryo had managed to open the kids' door too. He had decided to let them escape so far before having Dante's men round them up. Perfect for crushing morale. Another exterior view however showed two of the octo-drones poking the base generator.

"Hey! What are those things doing? Somebody stop them before they-" started Kurata before the power suddenly was cut off. Kurata's voice came from the blackness, "I hate this planet."

--

Matt walked out into the corridor, clicking on his armored helmet. He didn't know how much protection it would give but anything was better than nothing. "Now, where to find the-" he started before the power went out. "Hey! Who turned out the lights?"

Matt found out much to his pleasure that his current body had very good night vision. This helped as two of Dante's men flailed into view, trying to get their searchlights on. "Hmm, this could be fun," said Matt smirking.

The two guards didn't stand a chance. The first one was sent down the corridor by Matt's punch and the other was pushed into the wall, knocked out cold. Matt pulled the guy's helmet off and grinned. "Should be a fit, come, on, dufus," he said, dragging the gibbering trooper into a side room.

A few moments later, Matt came out wearing the guard's uniform. Unfortunately, no human boot could fit him now and the tail was uncomfortable jammed down one pant leg.

"This better work..." he muttered, slipping on the helmet that deployed a full mask.

--

The lights were still out when the hanger pilot saw a trooper stagger towards him. "Kurata needs some data sheets taken to the station," the guy said.

"Something wrong with your leg pal?" said the pilot.

"Er, I sprained in while checking the jungle. It's in a splint right now."

The guard shrugged. "I hope they fix the lights. Those damn drones stole the generator. Last week it was a combat MTAC," said the guard.

"Huh, wonder what they want," said the trooper.

"They take anything, before the MTAC it was a box of soup cans from the waste disposal," said the guard, yawning. The trooper nodded and walked towards a shuttle.

--

Inside the shuttle, the kids were trying to hide. The blackout had allowed them to use the vents to get to the bay and now they just needed to hide till the shuttle reached Shihuken.

Just then a trooper staggered into the shuttle. "Ugh, I never realized tails can be so much trouble," he said.

They hid back as the trooper pressed a few buttons to seal the hatch before wandering over to the piloting capsule and climbing in. A minute later the systems all lit up and a familiar human hologram appeared. "Ok, time to take this ship out of here and bring in CONCORD," said Matt. Then the shuttle's engines started warming up.

At the same time, faint clunks were heard. It seemed the guards had caught on and were firing, despite every shot bouncing off the shuttle's armor plating. Matt piloted the ship out and smirked as the other shuttles, rigged for autopilot did the same. "Find me now," he said.

"I just did," said a familiar voice, "You don't think you've escaped that easily, do you?"

"Please, take your pick. I could be in any of these shuttles, when I get back I'm not gonna bother with CONCORD," said Matt. Rika glared. "I knew it." she muttered and stopped as Matt carried on,

"I'll just get my mates together and come say 'Hi' with a battlefleet."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," said Kurata.

"What are you going to do? Remote control this shuttle back?" taunted Matt. "No," said Kurata, "But defense satellites make good watchdogs."

"Still have to find me," said Matt.

Kurata grinned happily. "Hmm...maybe you're on the one with 5 life signs," he said.

Matt looked confused before concentrating and using the shuttle's internal camera's to look around. "Oh boy," he said as a camera behind the kids turned on.

"Well, since I know the program was a success, I don't need you lot anymore," said Kurata, "Au revoir."

Matt's hologram gulped before turning towards where the gang were. "Ok...out you come," he said angrily.

Rika came out first. "You're not leaving this planet without us, Lynch," she said.

Matt sighed and said, "I never was going to. I would have asked you guys to come along, but somebody blew the whistle on me before I was ready."

Rika glared. "Yeah right, you've lied from the start."

A warning light came on a console. 'Warning: Hostile lock on detected.'

"Can we leave the paranoia back at Kurata's?" said Matt.

A pulse blast shot by the window, actually heating the window enough to it glow. "Oh man," said Henry, "I don't want to fall to my death here." "Don't worry about that," said Matt, "At this height, you'll burn up in reentry first."

The shuttle did a barrel roll, avoiding another blast that nearly made a new porthole. Matt concentrated with the steering, the ships sensors screaming about more incoming fire, not to mention two incoming 'Dragonfly' fighters headed from the direction of the station.

"Um, please tell me you've made out of worse situations than this," said Takato.

"Oh sure," said Matt, "I always think I'm going to die but then I wake up in a CRU and... oh."

Ryo finally lost his cool for the first time. "THAT'S NOT HELPING!" he yelled at Matt's body in the control capsule.

Matt's hologram gripped his head. "DON'T YELL AT THE DESIGNATED DRIVER!" he yelled as the first fighter got in range and took a few potshots with its railguns. The explosions outside immediately got the kids into a panic. "Guys, will you keep it down?" shouted Matt, "It's hard to concentrate with all the screaming there."

He concentrated back on the exterior camera's in time to see the second fighter playing 'chicken' with them, firing its cannons. Matt yelped and managed to peel to the left, but not before a cluster of shots hit the shuttle, knocking out its shield and armor in a couple of bursts.

"Ok, I think we can pull out of this," said Matt. But in the excitement the Dragonflies caused, Matt forgot about the satellites. A pulse blast reminded him of the problem as an orbital shot sheered the left wing clean off. "Ok...now we can panic," said Matt.

--

The shuttle spiraled out of control, smoke spouting from the damage. Luckily, the mountain below had plenty of snow to cushion the fall but it still shook everyone up.

Matt got out of the control capsule shakily. "Is everyone alright?" he asked.

"I think so," said Takato who had trouble standing on the tilted floor.

Rika notice Ryo tightly hugging her abdomen. "Ryo, you have five seconds to let go before I make a jacket out of you," she said.

Matt pulled the door open and was knocked over as a gust of snowy wind blasted in. "We can't go out in this," he said. The whine of the two fighters on a strafing run supplied a convincing counter-argument.

"RUN!" yelled Henry.

The five of them quickly got out of the shuttle and ran away. Which was fortunate because a dropped bomb from one of the fighters blew the shuttle to scrap metal. The blast knocked the group forward a good few feet. Luckily the blizzard shielded them from sight.

--

"Viper one to base. Targets are scrap. Returning to dock," said the pilot to Kurata.

Kurata glared. "Have you seen their bodies?"

"Negative, sir," said the pilot, "If they were still in that shuttle, they would have been blown to pixels."

"I don't care. I'm sending a team to confirm. You are to keep circling till they arrive."

--

It was later...

Mark pulled a piece of wreckage aside and again wished he'd just quit the contract instead of trying to pay Kurata back. The guy was obviously nutso. He didn't like that he had to look through wreckage to find people he was just getting to know, especially since Kurata wanted them dead.

Mark stepped out of the wreckage and spotted several sets of pawprints in the snow, already half-buried from the falling snow. He kicked some snow on them and turned to Dante. "No sign of em, sir. They must be toast." He looked at where the tracks had been going. "Though I hope not," he muttered.

--

Meanwhile, the small group of humans-turned-Digimon were stumbling through the blizzard. "This is great," grumbled Rika, "I'm going to end up freezing to death on top of a mountain."

"Well, if it's any consolation," said Matt, "This body's probably cold-blooded so I'm gonna croak before you do, Ms. Built-In-Fur-Coat."

There was a thud behind them and Rika and Matt turned to see Henry trying to wake Takato up. "We need to find shelter or we're ice cubes," said Matt, his teeth chattering. "Although...a nice...nap won't...hurt," he mumbled before falling to his knees...then onto his face.

"No Matt, you can't fall asleep," said Rika as she started shaking him, "If you fall asleep here you'll...never...wake...up..." Then Rika fell forward onto the snow. Henry's smaller body was already exhausted so he fell down as well.

It would have been game over for the gang then and there, except they had been followed for the past 20 minutes. Three figures walked out of the blizzard, wrapped in coats and in one case, glowing with ghostly flames. The flaming one said in a feminine voice, "Get them to the town before they freeze. What these Rookies are doing here I don't know."

**Looks like the gang has been rescued for now…so much for an easy escape'.**

**Please read and review**


	3. Chapter 3

**Digimon and related chars are property of Bandai.**

**Eve Online is the property of CCP Studios**

**Cerberus Industries and Matt are my property.**

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 3**

Matt opened his eyes to find he was in a familiar place. It was his room where he used to live before he was a Capsuleer. He jumped up to look at his hands, currently human. "You fool, you landed yourself in a mess again," said a voice. Matt turned to see his sister, exactly as he last saw her...complete with the burns.

Matt jumped backwards and landed hard on his back. "What? How? Why?" he said weakly, completely baffled.

"You're dreaming. I ask again. Why did you become a Capsuleer?" said the phantom of his sister. Matt began to say, "I joined to help..." and was interrupted. "No, you'll never be able to help your friends if you can't help yourself. It's time to wake," said his sister who leaned close and yelled, "WAKE UP!"

--

Matt yelped and jumped up. Immediately, he tumbled out of the bed he had been on. "Ow," he muttered after his snout hit the floor.

He groaned and got back up before looking around. His armor was on a side table. The room he was in appeared to be some kind of cave, apparently. "Hello?" he said, clipping the breastplate and leg guards back on.

He heard footsteps approaching and quickly got the rest of his armor on. He was getting into a fighting position when another Flamedramon came in. From the shapes on the chest under the breastplate and the wider hips, Matt could tell she was a female.

"Ah, you're awake. You'll be happy to know your travelling companions are well too," said the newcomer.

Matt nodded. "Erm...er...ok," he said.

"Are you ok?" she asked, "Your face is awfully red."

"Erm, I'm still feeling cold right now," said Matt, trying to keep his eyes off her figure.

_'She's not even my species...think about starships...laser cannons...anything...she is cute though...NO...BAD HORMONES!'_ was the thought circling in Matt's head.

The female Flamedramon waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello? Anymon home?" Matt shook his head and said, "Uh, sorry. By the way, who brought me in?" "Well, I did," she said.

Matt nodded and extended his hand to shake. "Thanks, we'd have been in real trouble otherwise," he said.

The female took it and said, "My name is Flare. Now, if you're feeling better now, my father would like to see you."

Matt nodded. "Captai...Matthew Lynch...my friends call me Matt," he said, following her out into another cave tunnel. "Odd, I would have thought your name would be Blaze," said Flare.

Matt gently filtered this information through his brain before saying. "Matt's a nickname," he said as convincingly as he could, "How'd you guess my real name?" Flare shrugged and said, "I have a way with Digimon."

"Yeah...I'm sure..." said Matt, his eyes slowly being drawn towards Flare's shapely butt. "Blurble...I mean...lead the way," he said, mentally deciding that next dream he would be having a word with his libido.

--

Flare led him to a large cavern. Inside, he saw several Digimon. Many of them wear pieces of armor not unlike his. He remembered Commandramon referring to him as an 'Armor', so he presumed the rest of them were 'Armors' too. The cavern appeared to be some kind of canteen, most of the 'Armors' sitting around and chatting happily. The chatting stopped for a second before continuing." "Wow, how many of you guys live here?" asked Matt.

"About 2 dozen at any time. We try to help the other regions as best we can...and with those damn humans everywhere, digging up the earth, we are stretched thin," said Flare.

Matt gulped. "Yes...darn those humans," he said in a worried voice. Just then, a tall Digimon stepped in front of Matt. Its body was a lot like a centaur's only the armor on the humanoid upper part was covered in armor somewhat similar to Matt's. "Hey, what are you doing with my gal?" said the Digimon.

Flare sighed. "For the last time, I am not your 'gal', Sagittarimon," she said. Matt glared at him. "Hey, how about a little respect for the fairer sex?" he said. Sagittarimon poked Matt in the stomach with his bow and said, "Listen up, new guy. I'm gonna be the next leader so I don't you messing with what's not yours."

"Man, you've got a huge nose. It's bigger then a gas giant," said Matt. He didn't like this new guy.

Sagittarimon growled, picked Matt up by his chest plate, and held him up to his face. "You've got big mouth for a skinny guy," growled Sagittarimon.

"And you've obviously eaten all the pies," said Matt. "Are you calling me fat?" snarled Sagittarimon.

"Good lord, an insight. Is there another one coming?" said Matt. Flare giggled a bit at that. "What are you, nuts?" said Sagittarimon, "I'm at least, uh, one, two, three times more muscular than you, candlestick."

"Aha, but I make up for it by having a fully functional brain, chubbo," said Matt, before wincing as Sagittarimon squeezed. "I don't like your attitude," said Sagittarimon, "I think someone needs to learn some respect for future leaders."

"Nah, I've seen my share, and you look too stupid to even lead a waste disposal frigate," said Matt.

Flare glared. "Sagittarimon, put him down. He was in a blizzard and he doesn't know what he's saying."

"Oh, I'll put him down alright," said Sagittarimon. He fitted Matt to his bow and shot him straight into a rock wall.

Flare glared. "That was uncalled for," she said. Matt managed to get back up. "Ok, you asked for it, donkey boy," he said, igniting a fireball in his fist. "Blaze, don't do it!" shouted Flare.

Matt wasn't listening and sent a Fire Rocket at Sagittarimon. The fireball was stopped in midair by another Digimon. "Hey, what the-" Matt looked to see a Digimon that partially resembled the blue lizard under his armor, only wearing golden armor"

Father, please don't be mad at him," said Flare, "He didn't understand what he was doing." "I'm not mad, but he has issued a challenge. You know what the rules imply," said the new Digimon in a kindly voice.

"Erm, what would that be?" asked Matt. He heard about meeting future in-laws would be terrifying, but he didn't think it would be this bad.

"You have issued a challenge to combat," said Magnamon simply before turning to Sagittarimon, "Do you accept?"

Sagittarimon grinned nastily and said, "Sure, I'll fight him." Matt gulped. "Out of interest, what happens to the loser?" he asked "Your armor, and your status as an Armor, shall be removed," said Magnamon.

"Doesn't sound too bad," said Matt before realizing that it might be a bit...fatal as he wasn't exactly a real Digimon.

"You better get ready, little mon, cause I'm gonna stomp you flat," said Sagittarimon. "Hey, I'm a bit rusty. Don't I get to train up?" said Matt, backing up nervously. "Ok, one day's training. But be back here in 14 hours," said Sagittarimon. "There's 24 hours in a day, dumbo," said Matt.

"Uh, right, 24 hours, and you better be back or you'll be kicked out," said Sagittarimon before trotting away. Matt nodded. "Ok...oh great...least I might get to find out what happens to Capsuleers who run out of clones," he said glumly

--

The others had recovered from their exposure to the snowstorm and decided to keep an eye on Matt. Seeing how Matt was planning on returning with help, the boys were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Rika didn't trust Matt completely, but she decided to keep a close eye on him since he was her only way off this planet.

"Look, he's been trying to help, Rika," said Takato. The last discussion had been about Matt.

They stopped as they heard a thump from a side room. "No, no, no. You're acting without thinking," said a female voice. Their curiosity piqued, the small group went into the room to see two Flamedramon training with each other; one of them was Matt while the other was a female.

Matt was currently on the floor, rubbing his head. "Ok...again," said the female, getting into a fighting stance. Matt got up and slowly walked towards her. When he got there he made a swipe, only for his arm to be grabbed and for him to be flipped over her head and onto the floor behind her. "Uh, what's Matt doing?" asked Takato.

"I don't know, but I'm enjoying this," said Rika, smirking and leaning against the wall. The Flamedramon turned and said, "Oh, Blaze's friends. You are well?" "Quite well," said Rika, "I'm glad to know the girls are the better warriors." Flare smiled, "So true." Matt groaned, "I can't feel my spine."

"Um, why has Matt been having his tail handed to him?" asked Henry. "He challenged Sagittarimon to combat," said Flare. "Who's Sagittarimon?" asked Ryo.

Matt got up unsteadily. "He's a giant centaur thing with an ego the size of an 'Avatar' titan," he said.

"And you picked a fight with him?" said Rika, obviously enjoying herself, "I bet he's gonna mop the floor with you."

"More than that, he might kill me," said Matt and gave a second for this to sink in.

Rika frowned and said, "I suppose we can't let that happen. You're going to have to go through a crash course."

"And what do you know about fighting?" said Matt.

"My family didn't keep their fortunes by just having bodyguards around," said Rika, "Self-defense is required to prevent thieves and assassins from taking what's not theirs." Matt sighed. "It can't hurt...well...not more than the current regime," he said.

About an hour later, Matt felt sorer than he's been. "It...hurts...to...breathe..." groaned Matt.

"Oh, you can't be giving up that easily," said Rika, "Haven't you ever done hand-to-hand combat before?" "No...I do ship-to-ship," moaned Matt, taking an armored glove off and rubbing his aching hand. "Well no wonder you're such a pushover," said Rika, "Relying on machines all the time weakens the body."

Matt sighed, getting up. "I hate everything...but mostly you at the moment..." he said. It was lucky that Flare had gone off to drink so they didn't have to keep up the cover.

"Yeah, yeah, c'mon, you can't beat Sagittarimon if you're so flimsy," said Rika as she put Matt back on his feet. Matt glared. "Are you enjoying this?" he asked accusingly

"Oh yeah," said Rika, "But look on the bright side. With the amount of stress relief I'm getting, I'll probably get over my grudge against you when this is over."

"Look, the aim is to train me, not injure me so centaur boy has an easy shot," said Matt. "Relax, Flare says there's a healing spring you can recharge at when we're done," said Rika, "Now how about we work on your footwork?"

"Oh no, I want to be able to get to the spring," said Matt, trying to back up.

Suddenly, Rika faded into the shadows and reappeared besides Matt. "Now, now, don't quit on me now."

Matt jumped backwards and yelped. "How did you do that?" he asked. Rika looked confused as she said, "Uh, I don't know, I just...did."

"Don't do it again. You're worse than the A.I back at my station," said Matt. Ryo shuddered and said, "Ugh, don't remind me."

--

Kurata was not in a good mood. His spies at Matt's corp revealed that Matt hasn't appeared in a clone yet. Which meant he was still alive on this planet and that also meant that the kids were alive too.

To make things worse he'd lost another two mining teams. The Digimon left the controller teams alone, but they kept wrecking the mining drones. Another team had been lost at the local mountain range, near where Matt and the others had been shot down.

"Well, I might as well kill two birds with one stone," said Kurata, "Or two flocks of birds as the case may be."

"Dante, I have a job for you..." he said, turning on his intercom.

--

The hours quickly sped by, but for Matt, if felt like a week. Sooner than he expected, it was time to face Sagittarimon in the ring. Ryo and Flare were following him. "You'll be fine, Ma...Blaze," Ryo said.

"I'm not feeling confident about this," said Matt.

"Momentai," said Henry, "You'll get through." "Momentai? What in the name of EVE does that mean?" Matt said it. "It means 'No worries'," said Henry. "For the rest of your days?" asked Matt.

"Please don't start that," said Ryo. The others looked at Ryo. "He found some kind of primitive holo-disk. It took a month to stop him singing," he said.

"That's right," said Rika, "You'll be able to win." She drew close to Matt and hissed, "Because if you lose and Sagittarimon doesn't finish you off, I will." Matt gulped. "If I die who'll fly you home?" he said in a weak voice

"Well, I highly doubt a Veemon can pilot a ship, whatever a Veemon is," said Rika, "And if I'm stuck here, I might as well enjoy myself as much as I can."

"If we get home, I'm shaving you before I get your body back," said Matt icily before walking into a ring.

"Sheesh, those two fight like a married couple," said Takato to Henry. "Nah, I think Flare's more 'Blaze's' type," said Henry.

The rest of the Armor Digimon were watching from the sidelines. Matt spotted Takato and the others, Takato waving and giving a thumbs up and he also spotted Flare, standing next to her father.

Flare smiled slightly and waved gently towards Matt. Matt gave a nervous grin and waved back. Then Magnamon stepped forward.

"This is not a fight to deletion," he announced, glaring at Sagittarimon in particular who, to Matt's worry, looked disappointed. "The fight lasts until one of you is unconscious. The loser will have their armor data removed." Matt was slightly relieved. But he was still nervous about this being his first actual physical combat fight. Sagittarimon smirked as Magnamon got pout the arena. "Begin." he said.

Sagittarimon pawed the ground with his front paws before charging at Matt. Matt's memory of his combat training instantly went blank. So he decided to do something he saw on an old history disk. Matt waited before twirling out the way.

"Torro," he said. Some of the Digimon were impressed and Flare laughed before wincing; Matt had forgotten to take into account that Sagittarimon probably had a good turning rate.

Matt groaned and got back up stiffly. He could clearly feel the footprints left in his back by the charging Digimon. Sagittarimon turned and aimed his bow. "JUDGEMENT ARROW!" he yelled.

"Why are you yelling tha...? YOW!" said Matt, dodging the three-pronged arrow just in time. Matt glared back at Sagittarimon and said, "Oh, so that's how you want it, huh? Well two can play at that game. Uh, let's see, what was that attack Flare told me about?" Matt concentrated and an aura of fire surrounded him.

He then charged Sagittarimon, only for the more experienced Digimon to backhand him into the far wall. Flare and the gang winced in sympathy. "Urg...this stuff's a lot harder than it looks," groaned Matt.

"Is that best you can do?" said Sagittarimon, "You're absolutely pathetic. A Digimon like you belongs at the In-Training stage."

"Ow..." managed Matt and was peeled off the wall by Sagittarimon who prepared to give Matt a final punch to the face.

Luckily, an interruption came in the form of a small Digimon staggering into the hall in a panic. "The humans...the...humans." he panted. "Stop the match!" shouted Magnamon. He turned to the Rabbitmon and asked, "What about the humans?"

"They...they're burning the town...in the valley...their machines overpowered the mayor...they're burning everything," said the Rabbitmon in terror.

Magnamon's face turned grim. "If they would attack the village, they'll most likely attack Meteor Mountain too. Warriors, prepare for battle! Sagittarimon dropped Matt. "I'll finish you later," he said.

"We'll need all the support we can get," said Magnamon, "The newcomers are coming as well."

Sagittarimon looked angry. "But, he'll just get in the way." Magnamon said simply, "I won't repeat myself."

--

The Digimon ran out onto the same mountainside where Matt had crashed. The shuttle had only just missed the cave entrance which was hidden behind some kind of hologram spell. Smoke, gunfire, and cries could be heard and seen far below at the bottom of a snowy hill.

"We need to head down there as fast as we can," said Magnamon, "There are innocent lives being endangered."

"We'll never get down there in time," said a Pegasusmon.

Matt and Takato however had wandered over to some wreckage, in particular an unharmed armor panel. "Do they still do hoverboarding back on Gallente Prime?" asked Matt to Takato. "Hmph, figures a spineless rat would go rooting through human garbage," said Sagittarimon.

"I believe in recycling," said Matt, putting the plate flat on the snow and standing on it. Takato got on it while Rika walked angrily towards Sagittarimon. "What a cowardly clown," said Sagittarimon.

Rika kicked his back right leg and said, "Hey! At least, he's showing actual concern for those Digimon. You're more annoyed that you haven't got the chance to finish your fight."

Matt kicked the plate, getting everyone's attention. "Ladies and gentlemon...and cow boy over there...we give you the world's first snowboard...bye," he called before bowing and kicking off, him and a terrified Takato riding it down the mountainside. Flare watched as the two Digimon made good time before looking thoughtfully at another piece of armor plating.

Takato held on tightly as the impromptu snowboard he and Matt were on slid rapidly down the mountainside. "So once we get to the bottom, what's the next part of the plan?" asked Takato.

"What plan?" asked Matt.

Takato gulped and gripped harder.

--

The town was in chaos. The Cerberus security force had caught the locals totally unaware. Most of the mercs were enjoying the chance to let loose...except one.

Mark already had enough issues with Kurata regarding Matt and the others. But now he was being ordered to force innocent civilians out of their homes just to make room for more mining. Though the word 'raze' was more appropriate as Mark watched a combat MTAC shoots its shoulder HMG's into a building.

Mark was about to take aim at a target before he realized it was a mother Digimon carrying away her children. Mark lowered his blaster and said, "Screw this." He tossed the weapon onto the ground and walked off.

He turned the corner to see Dante waving the team's single combat tank forward. "Mark...what the...get back out there!" yelled Dante before stopping. "Do you hear something?"

There were two loud screams as suddenly flew down from the sky. A large plate of shuttle hull armor shot between Mark and Dante and buried itself and in the wall between them. Dante and Mark looked around the end to look at each other with pale faces. Dante licked his finger and tested the edge. "Nnngh?" he grunted, voice stolen from terror overload. It wasn't every day you were almost turned into two half-brothers.

Mark spotted a pair of Digimon slowly getting back up. He tried to tell Dante, but all that came out was "Gggg-neeep."

Dante turned and spotted the two Digimon before sheer fury overcame his slight nervous breakdown. "It's...no...it's two of the subjects. Someone kill em," he said, pointing. Takato turned to Matt and said, "I thought you good at snowboarding."

"I never actually said that," said Matt, "Actually, I'm not very good at hoverboarding either." Takato turned. "Are you any good at fighting tanks?" he said faintly.

Matt shrugged. "Like this? No, why do you...oh crap," he said turning to see a tank with 6 Cerberus troopers come into view. "I really hope they haven't fireproofed those things," said Matt as he tried frantically to remember Flare's lessons. The tank's cannon blazed and an antimatter shell barely missed them. "New plan...run away!" he said, grabbing Takato and running for it.

The two of them ran as the Cerberus soldiers started firing at them. "Split up!" said Matt, "We'll have a better chance that way." Takato nodded and ran down a side alley while Matt continued on.

Matt followed his alley before emerging in front of a MTAC. "Hey, my lucky day, target practice," said the pilot. Matt gulped as the MYAC aimed before a piece of armor plating bounced off it and Flare landed on top of it. "What the-" said the pilot before Flare pointed her fist at him.

"FIRE ROCKET!" she called and a fireball blasted out of her fist and hit the cockpit. The fireball just scorched the cockpit glass but it did make it so the pilot couldn't see. The pilot got round this by firing wildly.

"Flare, powerpack on the back!" yelled Matt, pointing at a box-shaped part on the back of the mech.

Flare nodded and grabbed onto one part of the MTAC. She swung her body down and kicked the powerpack off.

The pilot inside could be heard swearing as his MTAC stopped moving. Matt grabbed the merc as he climbed out and was surprised to find out how light the guy was.

"How about you quit now before your day gets worse?" said Matt to the merc. The merc nodded numbly and Matt threw him into the alley.

--

Meanwhile, Takato wasn't having as much luck as Matt. Several of Dantes's men had been chasing him since he separated from Matt. A plasma blast blew a chunk out the wall over his head. "There he goes! Kurata'll want him alive!" yelled a merc.

"I'd rather die than go back to him," muttered Takato, "Who am I kidding? I'd rather be able to escape with my life."

He managed to run out into a small square at the same time two more MTAC's strode in...via some walls. "Nowhere to go, hands up or you're dead meat!" yelled a merc."

I could really use some kind of deux ex machina right now," said Takato. Suddenly, he was surrounded by bright light and he instinctively said, "Guilmon digivolve to... Growlmon!" When the light faded, Takato was a larger and tougher version of his previous form, only with a mane of white hair on his head. Takato looked at himself and said, "That'll do."

"Bloody Jovians...SHOOT IT, SHOOT IT!" yelled the squad leader in panic, before firing at him.

Takato winced as the laser blasts hit him. "Hey! Ow! Cut it out!" he yelled. Then he realized the blasts were only stinging him, not doing any actual damage.

The nearest MTAC however had just got its guns ready. It only just missed tearing a hole in Takato, doing it to a building instead. "I better fight back before they actually hurt me," said Takato, "If Matt can do attacks, than so can I. Uh, let's see, what can I do?"

He tried to concentrate and tried what he'd seen Matt do. While the fist did nothing, as so far as a special attack went, it did hit hard enough to knock the MTAC it hit on its back. "Alright!" said Takato, but his feeling of triumph soon ended when the MTAC started to get back up. "Ok, I need to do something better. I'm a different type of Digimon, so I probably have different attacks."

The other MTAC tried to grab Takato in an armlock and managed to just hold on. The other readied a tazer-like device on its arm. "G'night, freak," said the pilot.

Takato closed his eyes to await the hit and on instinct opened his mouth and yelled "PYRO BLASTER!" A large fireball blasted out of Takato's mouth and hit the MTAC. The mech was totaled by the blast and fell over. The other pilot made the mistake of letting go as Takato turned to face him. The gaze looked quite worrying, like a rabid slaver hound.

Takato roared loudly and ripped off one of the mech's arms before tearing the entire top off the cockpit. The merc screamed and uncoupled herself before running for it. It was just in time as Takato brought both fists down so hard that the merc was torn in half down the middle. The other mercs were running for it as their tank rumbled to attack. Takato noticed the tank about to fire on him.

However, his instincts kicked in again and he yelled, "DRAGON SLASH!" The fins on the side of his arms glowed brightly as he slashed them at the tank. Surprisingly, they went right through, cutting the tank lengthways.

The tank exploded in a violent fireball. The other mercs ran for it as fast as they could. Dante and Mark watched in shock as the team ran by. "What the hell is going...GOOD GOD!" he yelled, seeing Takato coming into view. He turned and saw Matt and Flare the other way.

Takato sense the two Flamedramon were the better fighters. Unfortunately, he wasn't in control of himself at the moment so he charged at Matt and Flare. Matt said, "Ok, traitor. Now you're mine...uh oh," he said and was pushed aside by Flare just in time.

Takato smashed at the place where Matt had been. "Takato, are you nuts?!" yelled Matt, "It's me, Ma- er, Blaze."

Takato snarled and tried to claw Matt across the chest. Flare glared at Matt. "Blaze, get out of here! You won't stand the chance against a Champion in a battle rage," she said.

"You're telling me," said Matt, "Takato isn't normally like this." Matt watched as Takato tried to blast Flare. "No, I'm a Capsuleer, not a fifth wheel," he said and charged at Takato's back. Takato turned around and yelled, "PYRO BLASTER!" and shot a large fireball at Matt.

Matt ran towards it, but nimbly dodged it at the last second. He landed on the edge of a roof. "Wow, bouncy," he said in shock, before jumping another shot at him.

Matt landed on Takato's head and had to grab onto his white mane to prevent being shaken off. "Gah...down boy!" Matt said, barely keeping a grip.

Then Takato tossed Matt down onto the ground. He raised up one foot and was about to stomp on Matt when Flare ran forward and threw Matt out of the way, only to be stepped on herself.

Matt got up in horror as Takato picked up the dazed Flare. "Takato...NO!" he yelled and sent a Fire Rocket into Takato's arm. Takato yelped in pain and dropped Flare. Matt ran over and caught Flare before she hit the ground. Flare looked up. "Ow...what hit me?" she mumbled.

Matt put her gently down and felt where she had taken the hit. "Nothing busted," he said before turning to face Takato. "Kid, get a grip!" he yelled. Takato was still wincing from that attack, but he still growled at Matt. "Ok, you asked for it," said Matt. He jumped high and delivered a powerful punch right on Takato's nose.

Takato yelped and gripped his snout but it did have the bonus of making his eyes re-focus. "Ow...Matt?" he said.

"Well it's about time," said Matt, "I thought that I had to seriously hurt you before you can think with reason again."

Takato looked down. "Did you shrink? The last thing I remember is those Cerberus mercenaries cornering me." Matt however wasn't listening, checking on Flare who had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Just then, Magnamon and the others came into the village. "Is everyone alright?" he asked. He paused when he saw the large Growlmon and his daughter lying on the ground. "She's ok," said Matt, "But she's out of the fight for now."

Matt knew that Sagittarimon wasn't far behind and was mentally counting. He got to 3 when he heard Sagittarimon object to him kneeling near Flare. "Hey! Keep away from my gal!" said Sagittarimon.

Magnamon turned towards him and said, "Sagittarimon, we've been through this. Just because you're to succeed me if I ever fall, that doesn't automatically mean that my daughter will be your mate." Matt glared at him. "I'm just checking her injuries, you idiot," he said, coldly.

Sagittarimon glared at Matt and said, "She better be ok, or else..."

He started to draw back his bow when Magnamon grabbed his arm. "That's enough," he said, "I am the leader of this clan, so I will be the one who administrates justice, particularly if it regards my own daughter."

"She's lucky, just some bruised ribs," said Matt, forgetting that most Digimon should not know first aid.

"Then a dip in the healing spring should be all that she needs," said Magnamon, "How did she get injured like this?"

"Um, I kinda lost control of myself, I think," said Takato, looking rather bashful, which is rather odd since he was currently a large dinosaur.

Matt nodded. Magnamon sighed. "First time digivolutions," he said and even Sagittarimon nodded knowingly in sympathy.

"Erm, the others won't be like that when they'll digivolve, right?" asked Matt. Magnamon shrugged, "Some take it better than others, most often the females. But it mostly concerns strength of will."

Matt grinned at Takato who glared at him. "Does it wear off?" asked Takato, turning away from Matt.

"When you run out of excess energy, you'll revert back," said Magnamon.

Flare gave a groan as she began to come round. Sagittarimon tried to get there first but Matt jumped over him. "Flare, speak to me," he said. Flare opened her eyes to see Matt's face an inch from her. "Did...you save me?" asked Flare. "Uh, pretty much, yeah," said Matt.

Flare smiled and said, "I owe you one." But then they both noticed they were blushing and turned away from each other.

Matt turned to be nose to nose with Sagittarimon who was almost foaming at the mouth. "We still must finish our fight," he said angrily to Matt.

"Uh, right," said Matt, "Does it have to be right now cause I'm kinda tired from all the fighting I just did."

"Now is better than later," said Sagittarimon, sending a punch at Matt. Faster than Matt would have guess he could do it, he ducked under the punch, allowing his curved horn to slightly trim the underside of Sagittarimon's arm.

Sagittarimon glared and aimed another thump, only for Matt to jump back to avoid being hit. "You little weakling, so you're learning," he said to Matt. "Ok," said Matt, "Best place to learn is out in the field."

"Weaklings should know their place." said Sagittarimon, sending a Judgment Arrow at Matt.

Matt jumped out of the way of the arrow and said, "And egotists need to learn humility. FIRE ROCKET!" He sent a fireball straight at Sagittarimon. Sagittarimon winced and staggered back a few steps as the fireball hit. Then Matt ran forward as his fist became covered in flames. "FLAME FIST!" he yelled as he punched Sagittarimon in the gut. Sagittarimon was winded by the punch and Matt took advantage to jump out of range of the retaliation. "Wanna quit?" Matt taunted.

Sagittarimon glared and said, "Never! METEOR GALLOP!" He charged at Matt with an incredible speed. Matt managed to dodge the attack by jumping only for Sagittarimon to grab his leg and slam him into the ground. Matt groaned and tried to get up before Sagittarimon pinned him with one of his feet. Then he pulled back his bow and aimed an arrow right at Matt's head. "Any last words, weakling?" he said. Matt settled for getting an arm free and stabbing down with his gauntleted hand, the claws digging in. Sagittarimon winced and said, "That won't save you now."

A blast of gold energy knocked Sagittarimon down. "STOP THIS NOW!" roared Magnamon.

Matt coughed as the pressure was relieved from his torso. Flare went over to him and helped him up. "Thanks," he muttered.

"It was the least I could do," said Flare. Then they both turned to see Magnamon approach Sagittarimon.

Sagittarimon looked furious. "Let me finish that weakling," he was saying to Magnamon.

"No," said Magnamon sternly, "This was supposed to be a non-lethal battle, but you were willing to strike your opponent when he was down. You have brought great dishonor upon yourself."

"No, this fool let your daughter be hurt. Sooner let a Numemon have Armor powers," said Sagittarimon

"This so-called 'fool' has risked himself to save this village and my daughter," said Magnamon, "He is a novice, clearly, but he has courage, honor, and above all, compassion, something you never truly learned."

"Thanks...hey, what do you mean 'Novice'?" said Matt's ignored reaction.

Sagittarimon glared. "He is a weakling and anyone who welcomes him is one too," he said.

Magnamon sighed and said, "I see it was a mistake to make you second-in-command. The power has clearly gone to your head. Therefore, you must learn compassion without any power."

Sagittarimon backed up. "No...don't you dare..." he began before Magnamon produced a device like a crystal covered in cybernetics. A beam of light hit Sagittarimon. Sagittarimon was engulfed in pink light. Matt could clearly here Sagittarimon's loud cry, but instead of it fading, just became higher. When the light faded, a small lizard-like Digimon with blue scales, a white belly, a small horn on his nose, and a yellow V on his forehead was standing where Sagittarimon once was.

Matt felt his mouth fall open and he pointed numbly. "Erm...what..." he said. The new Digimon glared at Matt. "You...you ruined my life," he said.

Matt stared for a few more seconds before he started keeling over with laughter. "Ha, ha ha, your voice sounds ridiculous! Ha, ha, ha, it's like you're a little kid! A ha, ha, ha, ha!"

The new Digimon looked at them all. "You'll all pay for this, all of you!" he said and turned to run."

Veemon, there is a chance for redemption," said Magnamon, "Learn humility and compassion, and you'll regain your armor."

"And be with you soft-hearted fools? Forget it!" snapped Veemon, "I'm going where real power is!"

Magnamon sighed to himself as Veemon ran off. "So much wasted potential," he said. Matt watched the Veemon run off round a corner, pushing a returning survivor aside. "I'm sorry, guess we caused trouble," he said.

"You could say that," said Magnamon, "But it's probably for the best. I see now that if Sagittarimon eventually did succeed me, he'd abuse the Armor of Miracles for his own purposes. Still, it looks I'll need to find a new second-in-command now. Perhaps you could fill in. You have apt leadership qualities."

Matt shook his head. "No, not at the moment. I got the kids with me into bother. I have a duty to get them out of it," he said.

Magnamon nodded his head and said, "I understand. Being transformed does give one the urge to return home."

Matt made a finny gurgling noise. "What are you talking about?" he said unconvincingly. Given how humanity was not making a good name for themselves, he had a good vision of his rapidly-shortened life should he be rumbled.

Magnamon patted Matt on the shoulder and said, "We can discuss this later, where you'll feel more comfortable."

Matt watched as Magnamon walked over to Flare and hugged her. Takato looked down at Matt. "Are you ok?" he asked

"I'm...not certain," said Matt. Then he felt all the bruises he got during his fighting. "But I know I really need a dip in the healing spring right now."

--

Meanwhile, Impmon was walking around Arbormon's village. Now that Commandramon's probably in the next Region, he could find someone to prank without any potentially deadly backlashes.

He was just sitting near the entrance thinking what to do next when he saw the treeline being crushed by a row of giant metal...things. They remotely reminded him of Tankmon and Mechanorimon, but Impmon could easily tell they were not Digimon. And they were heading directly towards the village.

A firing line of humans were among them and two hovering machines were overhead. Some of the Rookie Digimon living in the town walked out nervously, followed by Arbormon, who looked furious. It didn't improve when a loudspeaker on the lead flyer activated, "Inhabitants, you are trespassing on Cerberus Industries property. You have 3 minutes to vacate the area."

"Nobody's going nowhere," said Arbormon, "POWER PUMMEL!" He opened his mouth and shot out a large seed that hit one of the MTACs. It exploded and ensnared the mech with vines.

The humans did not seem bothered, several of them moving aside to let a much larger vehicle forward. The device's main gun cracked with electricity as it aimed at Arbormon before firing a bolt of white electricity that caused a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, Arbormon was nowhere to be seen.

Then the soldiers started advancing on the village, firing at anything that was moving in front of them.

Impmon ran for it as plasma blasts bounced around him, sometimes cutting down a fleeing Rookie or blowing up a building. He ran round a corner and ran into Commandramon who looked as terrified as he was.

"I got no time for paybacks!" shouted Impmon, "We gotta get outta here before they blow us up like Arbormon!"

"Then maybe you can distract em," said Commandramon, pushing Impmon back into the street. Impmon was about to run back into cover when an explosion knocked him down.

--

Sometime later, Kurata was looking over the ruined remains of the village. "Ok then," he said, "Once we get this rubble out of the way, we can begin excavating immediately."

Then a soldier approached him, "Sir, we've found a survivor that you might find interesting." Kurata looked around to see what looked like a reptile in combat fatigues thrown at his feet. "What is that? I said kill them all," he said.

"Sir, I think we can find some use for this one," said Dante, "Like spreading a couple of bad rumors regarding the escapees." The Commandramon looked worried as Dante continued, "The next version of the clones for my men still need time anyhow."

Kurata looked thoughtful. Kurata nodded and said, "Yes, that could work to our advantage." He turned to the Digimon and said, "Tell any Digimon you come across that the humans who are wearing the forms of Digimon led us to this village."

"Wh...why are you letting me go?" said Commandramon. Kurata leaned close as he dared, "Because this is our world now, not yours."

**Uh oh…looks like Cerberus is on the warpath. At least the gang are safe for now…tune in next time and please leave a review.**


	4. Chapter 4

**EVE Online and related technology (except WARDEN and his drone designs) are property of CCP Studios**

**Matt, WARDEN, Umdramon (Property of me and my co-author, Cydra) and the spiderbots are my creations.**

**All digimon related chars (except Umdramon) are property of Bandai. **

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 4**

When everyone had got back to Meteor Mountain, Takato was still in Growlmon form, making him just too big to squeeze inside. Henry said, "Magnamon said it'd wear off soon. I'm sure it's not permanent." "I really hope you're right," said Takato, "Being stuck as a Digimon is one thing. But at least I was able to be inside a house, sorta."

Rika said, "Least you got a chance to give that Kurata creep some payback." "Yeah, but what about after that?" said Takato, "My parents will never believe it's me. I won't be able to sleep in my own bed again." "We're all in that lifepod," said Ryo.

"We might as well put up with it for now," Takato sighed and his body started to glow. "Hey! What the-" Suddenly, Takato's body was completely covered in light and began to shrink. When the light faded, he was to his previous Guilmon form. "See? All better," said Henry.

Ryo however had spotted a figure. "Hey, someone's coming this way." They soon spotted Commandramon coming up the slope. "What's he doing here?" said Rika, not sounding friendly. Suddenly, the ground shook and a Digimon popped out of the rock. It looked somewhat like a gnome, with odd-looking armor and a long hat. He also had one of the biggest noses they had ever seen.

"What the hell?" said Ryo, jumping back. When Commandramon got to the top, he glared at the new Digimon and said, "No fair, Grumblemon, you shortcutted." "Me did give you chance to come, but you no go," said the Digimon in a thick nasal voice.

Commandramon muttered something about cheaters to himself before following the large Digimon into the mountain. "Who was that?" asked Takato. "I don' know," said Henry, "But judging from the symbols on him, I'd guess he was another Legendary Warrior." "If that joker's with him this won't be good," said Ryo, "I wonder where Matt is."

--

Meanwhile, Matt and Flare were heading for the healing spring. After the battle at the village, they could both use a recharge. Matt looked at Flare. "So...Flare. I always wondered. Everyone around here just uses their species name to identify. Why have you got a nickname?" he asked.

"Well, every Digimon's got a nickname," said Flare, "It's so we can tell each other apart if there's more than one of our species present. You should know that." Matt nodded. "I suppose, makes sense," he said to himself.

"You can be odd sometimes," said Flare. Matt shrugged. "A little, I've had a weird life," he said.

Eventually, they made it to the healing spring. "Finally," said Matt, "I can't wait to jump in and..." He paused when he noticed Flare unbuckling her gauntlets. "Uh, what are you doing?" he asked.

"It's more effective and relaxing if we take our armor off," said Flare as she removed her gauntlets.

Matt shrugged and clicked off his before jumping in. Matt sighed and said, "Ah, just what the digidoctor ordered." He paused and said, "Did I really say that?" He looked back to see Flare getting her helmet off. "C'mon, slowpoke, you're missing all the..." his voice trailed off when Flare reached for the buckles of her breastplate. "Erm...Flare?" he said in a dry voice, "What are you doing?"

"Like I said, it works better without all the armor," said Flare. "But erm...what about erm...urk," said Matt as the breastplate landed. He spun round to look away. "Ok..." "What are doing?" asked Flare. "Well, it's just, you're bare..." said Matt.

Flare laughed and said, "What's the matter with that? We're both Reptilian Digimon." Matt made a funny noise as small but significant areas of his brain fused. "Well...I...uuuurrrr…" he said and slowly sank below the water, a small stream of bubbles coming up.

As he swam underwater, he could see Flare also swimming. Fortunately, his water vision made it all too blurry. What parts of Matt's brain was still working tried to take his mind off the problem at hand till he surfaced. "Grngh," he managed as Flare surfaced in front of him.

"Blaze? Is something wrong?" asked Flare. Matt couldn't push a coherent word out of his mouth even if he could think of one. Despite all his self-control, he could not tear his eyes away from Flare's bare chest. His entire face was slowly turning red in color. Matt continued to look straight ahead before his eyes rolled into his head and he slowly submerged again, a small amount of steam rising for a second.

Flare laughed a bit. "Ok, you can come up now...Blaze? Blaze?" she said. A couple of bubbles floated to the surface. "That's odd," said Flare, "He was swimming fine just a minute ago." A larger bubble rose with a sort of finality. "Oh boy," said Flare, catching on a bit.

--

Meanwhile, Magnamon was in a more private chamber. Seated in front of him was Grumblemon, the Legendary Warrior of Earth. "It's a surprise to see you here," said Magnamon, "Shouldn't you be protecting your territory?"

"These hard times indeed," said Grumblemon, "Me should not stay long. But me hear rumors about Arbormon's village. Humans find and destroy his village. Commandramon only survivor," nudging Commandramon forward.

"It's true, sir," said Commandramon in a weak voice, "Those humans blew up everything. I even saw them destroy Arbormon." Magnamon hung his head sadly. "His village sat on the human's doorstep for years. How did they find it now?" he said.

"They sent into humans in Digimon forms," said Commandramon, "They told them where the village was."

Magnamon looked angry. "Who told you that?" he said, his mind slipping to a certain group. "I saw them myself, sir," said Commandramon, "They came into the village with Impmon and then left. Poor Impmon, probably was the first to be blasted after Arbormon."

"Can Commandramon show us who false Digimon are?" said Grumblemon. "I think so," said Commandramon, "I could easily spot them. Come to think of it, I think I saw them on the way here."

Magnamon could not believe that Blaze and his friends were responsible, not after the village. However, before he could say anything Matt wandered by in a kind of daze.

"Ah, Blaze, I trust that you recovered nicely," said Magnamon. Matt turned, his eyes looking in different directions. These were the eyes of someone who's brain was partially dissolved. "Meeeh?" he said before continuing to walk off.

"Who he?" asked Grumblemon. "A new comer to this colony," said Magnamon, "He's still not used to fighting with his Armor powers, but he's learning." "Urrrgh," said Matt as he went round a corner before coming back. "Hmm... strange," said Magnamon, "His trip to the healing spring should have healed his injuries. Then again, I don't recall him being hit on the head."

Commandramon however was staring. He had recognized the Flamedramon straight away, specially as it was the one that had punted him. "Hey! That's one of the humans that told them where our village was!" said Commandramon. Grumblemon glared at Matt and growled, "What?"

"I see fishies," gibbered Matt, his eyes looking in different directions and spinning slowly. "Now wait a minute," said Magnamon, "You can't prove that..." "Me get proof right now," said Grumblemon and stomped over to Matt. "You, dizzy boy, where you come from?"

"Cor, I've never seen a nose the size of a Drake class BattleCruiser before," said Matt faintly. Grumblemon had no idea what a 'Drake class' was, but he got the implication. "Him may be cuckoo, but him rude. Me teach manners." He pulled a hammer of the ground and yelled, "SEISMIC SLEDGE!" He brought the hammer down right on top of Matt's head.

Magnamon winced as Matt's helmet forced over his eyes and he staggered around making muffled noises. Eventually, Matt pulled his helmet back up to its normal position. "First of all, thanks, I needed that," said Matt, "Second, what the heck was that for?"

Magnamon was grinning behind Grumblemon, despite trying not to. "Don't worry, you didn't nose...KNOW...know," he said. "Who is shorty anyways?" asked Matt. "Me Grumblemon," said Grumblemon, "Legendary Warrior of Earth."

Matt looked "You're a bit short." he said. Grumblemon glared first at Matt then at Magnamon who snorted with amusement at Matt's comment "Ok, why did you whack me with the croquet mallet?" said Matt.

"Commandramon say that you human traitor in disguise," said Grumblemon. Matt almost went pale. "That's crap. I demand to know his sources," he said in a steady voice. "I saw it with my own eyes," said Commandramon, "He was leading the group of humans disguised as Digimon and show the other humans where our village was."

Matt went, "Bleh...coulda been anyone." "Oh come on, he's obviously not a real Digimon," said Commandramon, "You'd to be either blind, deaf, and unable to smell or really thick to be unable to tell the difference." Grumblemon said, "He look real to me."

Matt mumbled, "Kinda proves his point," under his breath, making Magnamon stifle a laugh again. "Magnamon, don't tell me you were fooled," said Commandramon. "No, this Digimon was being chased by humans. He fought them." said Magnamon.

"It could be just a front," said Commandramon, "They probably staged it to look that he was fighting on our side." Matt leaned in. "Tell me, were you shot in the head at any point?" he said cheekily. "No, but you punted me to the other side of the village," said Commandramon. "You were gonna shoot Impmon," said Matt, nastily. "Enough!" snapped Grumblemon, "Someone here telling lie and me want to know who is."

Both Matt and Commandramon pointed at each other and said, "It's him...no it's you...I said it first," till Grumblemon hit them both. "Grumblemon, we won't find out the truth this way," said Magnamon. "Then what we do?" asked Grumblemon. "Get me an ice pack?" tried Matt. Magnamon looked at Matt. "He and his friends can take the trial..." he said gloomily.

Matt and Commandramon looked at each other. "Trial?" "Yes, the Trial of the White Crystal," said Magnamon. "Er, I'm not familiar with that one," said Matt. "You and your friends must take a relic to a sacred place. If you return with the crystal still white, you are no harm to our colony." "Um, what happens if we can't?" asked Matt. "Then you'll be kicked out," said Magnamon, "Of course, no one alive has returned with a blackened crystal."

--

The others didn't sound too confident about this trial either. "I'm not sure I even want to know how we're going to get this spot," said Henry, "It'll probably have nasty obstacles in the way." "Well, thanks for the confidence," said Matt icily. "I'd feel more confident if Matt and Takato weren't the only ones who had fighting powers," said Rika.

"Huh...maybe you'll get your chance?" said Matt in an annoyed voice. "Hey, at least you haven't lost much of your height," said Henry, "I feel like a stuffed animal." "Ah, quit complaining. This is just a treasure hunt. The whole 'nobody returns' stuff is probably just propaganda," said Matt. "So how are we going to find this 'sacred place' anyways?" asked Ryo. "Follow the yellow brick road?" said Matt sarcastically. "So when's this trial starting anyways?" asked Takato. "Tomorrow," said Matt.

--

Meanwhile, Commandramon was really nervous. It's bad enough that the four people he'd been telling false rumors about could easily attack him, but he also had to report to Kurata. He was wandering round a corner when he spotted a Veemon grumbling about annoying weaklings. "Sheesh, what's got your tail in a knot?" asked Commandramon. "That stupid jumped-up Flamedramon," muttered the Veemon, "Got me stripped of my armor...stole my future mate..."

Commandramon's eyebrows went up. "You mean you lost your status as an Armor? Harsh."

"Yes...and it's all thanks to those newcomer weaklings. They should have been left on the mountainside," said Veemon harshly. "Newcomers? They wouldn't happen to include a Guilmon, a Terriermon, a Renamon, and a Monodramon, would they?" asked Commandramon. Veemon glared at him. "You're with them?" he said in a low voice full of anger.

"Not at all," said Commandramon, "Like I'd hang out with a human/Digimon hybrid who punted me across the village." Veemon glared. "They were humans?" he said before grinning, "Perfect, I knew they were not true Digimon." "Well, duh, anyone can tell that," said Commandramon, "You'd have to have a head that contains more bone than brain cavity to not spot that."

Veemon stopped for a second. "Yes...of course I knew," he said. "So now Magnamon's sending them off on the Trial of the White Crystal tomorrow," said Commandramonn, "I hope they screw up." Veemon grinned. "We could...make sure they do," he said, sneakily. Commandramon looked doubtful and said, "Interfering could bring serious consequences on us. Not to mention that being able to interfere would be hard." "Oh, don't you worry. I took the trial myself before I got my armor. I know a few shortcuts," said Veemon darkly.

--

The next morning, the five of them were assembled in Magnamon's quarters. Magnamon was briefing them on how the trial would work. "It is simple, 5 miles north of here is a set of ruins. Inside the furthest building is a white crystal. All you have to do is bring it back...while keeping it white," said Magnamon.

Matt shrugged. "How hard could it be?" he said. At those words there was a roll of thunder.

Magnamon glanced upwards and said to himself, "Those Raidramon are getting too restless again. I should send them out on a scouting mission." Then he turned his attention back to the group and said, "Should you return with the white crystal in hand, it will prove that you are no harm to the digital world. Bringing back the crystal darkened will force me to exile you."

Matt nodded. "Ok, nice and easy, get the crystal and make sure it's the right color, easy peasy," he said.

"Of course, it's not likely you'll be bringing back a dark crystal," said Magnamon. Matt was looking optimistic until Magnamon said, "Normally, it would destroy anyone who'd darken it with their touch."

Matt went pale with terror. "Ok," he said weakly. "What if we broke it?" asked Takato. "The crystal is unbreakable," said Magnamon, "However, I have heard that those who are careless with it are 'admonished' by the crystal." "I'm presuming 'admonishing' is painful," said Matt.

"Presumably," said Magnamon, "It didn't happen to me when I took the trial and those who did have it happen to them did not wish to speak of it afterwards." "Ok," said Matt, who looked like he was having a heart attack. "There won't be any obstacles in the way, would there?" asked Rika, "No gaping chasms or treacherous rapids we have to cross, right?"

"Nothing like that, just a forest and a few wild ones. Nothing to worry about if you all work together," said Magnamon, confidently. This would have been comforting, except that Matt was sure the only way these four were united were their annoyance with Matt. "We're all going to die," said Matt dully.

--

Sometime later, the group was heading north towards where the ruins should be. "It's just straight ahead, right?" asked Ryo. "Sure thing," said Matt, who was holding the map, "We just go past this green blotch thing and we'll be there."

Rika sighed, took the map off Matt, turned it 180 degrees and handed it back. "Oh," said Matt before turning around. "Uh, Matt, you have read maps before, right?" asked Henry. "Well, if that includes star maps, yes," said Matt, "But I mostly listen to the ship's sensors." Rika gave him a disapproving stare and muttered, "City boy." Matt glared. "That's Capsuleer boy...and don't you forget it," he said.

When they were getting close to the forest, they heard the sound of stone banging against stone. "Rock slide!" cried Henry. "No, wait, it's not frequent enough to be a rock slide," said Ryo, "More like someone's hitting two rocks together." "Is someone screaming?" said Matt and jumped as a small digimon landed, going through the map and landing at his feet. It was Impmon, the bandanna was very recognizable, as was his method of arrival.

"Impmon? What are you doing here?" asked Takato. "I think we need to worry about those guys first," said Rika, pointing towards a trio of large Digimon that resembled ceratopsians with rock-hard hides. "Smegging hell," said Matt, jumping back. The lead one looked at them as Matt walked up, "Look, we can talk about this like civilized carbon-based..."

The Monocromon either didn't notice him or completely ignored him. Either way, they just trampled right over Matt, leaving him flattened into the ground like a cartoon character. Rika jumped the Monochromon charging at her. "Wow," she said, after she'd landed neatly on a branch. Ryo also jumped and instinctively started flapping his arms. To his surprise, he found himself remaining in midair. However, it was more of an extended jump as he was slowly coming back down.

Matt pulled himself out his imprint in the ground in time to be run over again. "I hate this planet," he said faintly. Takato growled and opened his mouth. He shouted, "PYRO SPHERE!" as a red sphere of fire shot out. The Monochromon stopped and shook its head when the blast hit before focusing angrily on Takato. However, Takato then said, "Guilmon digivolve to... Growlmon!" In a flash of light, Takato was now looming over the Monochromon.

The Monochromon looked up at Growlmon before making a high-pitched scream and fleeing, running over Matt who was getting up for the third time. The other two weren't as easily scared though. One of them charged at Takato who called out, "DRAGON SLASH!" and hit the Monochromon on the back. The Monochromon crumpled and slid to a halt, stopping an inch from Impmon. Then the last Monochromon charged forward, only to be hit head on by a Pyro Blaster attack.

They got up unsteadily and fled. Impmon looked around. "That you, pineapple head?" he said in a shaky voice. "Yeah, it's me," said Takato, "Or at least it will be once I power down." Impmon looked around. "Where's the weirdo Flamedramon?" he said.

There was a faint groan from a now, pretty deep hole. "Should it hurt to breathe?" Rika glanced down into the hole Matt was in. "You totally lucked out with Sagittarimon," she said. "I think my spines been turned to dust," said Matt, glaring at Rika. "Don't be silly," said Rika, "You need to have a backbone in the first place."

"Bite me, kid," said Matt, getting up and twisting his back with a series of clicking noises. Impmon stared at them. "Yeah, it's you. So, you headed for Meteor Mountain too?" "Actually, we've already been to Meteor Mountain," said Henry, "But now we have to go on this 'Trial of the White Gem' or whatever it's called." "Oh, you guys wanna be Armors too? Any Rookie wanting to join Magnamon's gang have to pass that trial," said Impmon.

"I'm already an Armor, thank you very much," said Matt, who was trying to see if all his bones were properly connected, "But the reason he sent us out here is because we were accused of leading the human forces to Arbormon's village."

Impmon went silent. "You haven't heard proper. I was there. Those human scumbags steamrollered the place...killed everyone," he said gloomily "Except you and Commandramon apparently," said Matt.

"That little Numemon, shoved me in front of them so he could run away," said Impmon angrily. "Why am I not surprised?" said Rika dryly.

"We could go back and prove he's an untrustworthy scumbag right now," said Matt cheerfully. "I think we need to get that crystal first," said Ryo, "That'll be definite proof that we're not bad." Matt sighed. "And we're lost cause Impmon here landed on the map," he said. "Oh, I know where to find that place," said Impmon, "I've went past it several times before."

The gang stared for a second. "So...anyone know the odds of that happening?" said Matt slowly. "Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth," said Henry, "Impmon, you think you can show us the way?" Impmon looked shifty. "What's it worth to have me show the way?" he said.

Matt grinned evilly and winked at Rika. "You remember Rika?" he said. Impmon immediately broke out in a sweat. "Now, let's not get hasty. How about a free meal?" he said. Matt grinned as Impmon went by. "How did you get to him so quickly?" asked Takato. "800 years of bartering for the best prices on starships." said Matt, walking past with a knowing grin.

--

Meanwhile, Veemon and Commandramon were following the gang. Commandramon wasn't exactly sure what they'll do, but seeing them mess up sounds like a lot of fun. "Look, are you sure it's this way? The Flamedramon looked lost," said Commandramon. "Of course, I'm sure," said Veemon, "I've come this way before, remember? Admittedly, it has been a few years..."

Commandrmon rolled his eyes. "Look, we'd better at least get them back in sight...what's that rumbling noise?" he said. The two of them turned to see a trio of stampeding Monochromon heading towards them. They barely had time to scream before they were both flattened under the Dinosaur Digimon. "I hate Blaze," moaned Veemon weakly.

--

Meanwhile, the group had found the ruins and the gang had a bad feeling. The 'ruins' looked to be the remains of a colony, though the architecture appeared to be a mix of all four of the EVE nations. "You know, I was kinda expecting this place to be made of stone," said Ryo, "Not metal." "Someone must have made the sleeper drones," said Matt, wiping some sand off to reveal a partial sign that spelled out 'Dai Indus...'

"Say, there couldn't be any booby traps, could there?" asked Takato. "In this old place?" said Matt, "No way. If there were any to begin with, they'd have fallen apart with old age by now." He walked away just in time as a gamma laser shot by, burning a small hole where he'd been. "Come on," he said, turning back to see the group's pale faces. "Didn't you just see that?" said Rika.

"See what? You're seeing things," Matt said, turning away and walking forward and just avoiding another burst of beam lasers. "Uh, Matt, I think you need to be more careful," said Henry. "Or what?" said Matt, "I might bruise my toe on a loose tile?" This time he did see the laser as it burnt a hole in front of him.

"Ok...maybe more than a toe," he said weakly. Matt experimentally picked up a rock and held it where the laser was. The laser hit the rock, but it only singed the surface of it. "Don't worry, these things are too old to be lethal," said Matt, "But they will sting a lot."

--

That fact had already been discovered by Veemon and Commandramon when they went in through another entrance. Veemon was shaking in shock. The lasers hadn't exactly hit him but they had burnt his shape into the wall behind him. "At least they're having as hard a time as us," said Commandramon in a bad mood. Veemon had used him as a Digimon shield.

"I certainly hope so," said Veemon before letting out a squawk as one laser hit him under his tail. The two Digimon wandered out onto an overhead tunnel. The 'walls' were simply struts with shards of clear glass in it. Below them they could see the group. "I don't believe it. How comes they're not singed?" said Commandramon.

Veemon was messing with a large shard of glass. "If you help me with this, they'll be impaled," he said. The plan didn't go well when the large shard fell back on its side and squashed Veemon under it.

"Ah, karma does exist after all," said Commandramon.

Veemon crawled from under the glass. "We gotta get rid of them somehow," he said, rubbing his nose.

"Maybe we can dig a pit and have them fall in it," suggested Commandramon. "That's a stupid idea," said Veemon before suddenly grinning. "But we could smash the gem before they get to it. No gem means they fail...miserably," he said evilly.

Commandramon frowned. "That's a little extreme, isn't it?" he said, "Who knows how WARDEN would respond to something like that? You could get sent to the Dark Area." "Yeah right...WARDEN...the great creators...what a load of Sukamon," said Veemon and the two stopped at a metallic scraping from a vent.

"I think you better take that back," said Commandramon, not sounding angry, but scared. "It's nothing...I'm sure...EEEK!" said Veemon, pointing at a robot spider. Commadramon glanced towards where Veemon was pointing, but the robot spider had scuttled out of sight. He looked back at Veemon and said, "I think your obsession's getting to your head."

"But...it was there...all...spidery and....eaaagh and....boogie boogie," said Veemon, panicking and trying to mime things "Yeah, you're definitely starting to lose it," said Commandramon. Commandramon turned to see three of the aforementioned spiderbots. "Oh crap," he said.

--

Matt looked up. "Did anyone hear a scream?" he asked "Eh, it's probably just the security trying to spook us again," said Rika. "Let's keep movin'," said Impmon, "If that is real, I want a healthy distance between it and me."

The group walked on, just turning the corner when two blackened Digimon landed head first. "Ouch...so...how angry do you think they are?" coughed Commandramon. Veemon winced and said, "Let's...just...break that...crystal...and go."

--

Meanwhile, Impmon had led the way to a large low building. Matt looked at the sign next to it. "Why would ancient ruins need quality control?" he said, before seeing the others had walked on without him. Matt caught up with them and said, "You can't just walk in here. There could be something dangerous in here." "It's a room full of crystals," said Rika, peering in.

Matt peered over her. "Oh...kinda anti-climatic," he commented. The crystals grew out of various surfaces in the room. They varied greatly in color, from red to purple and all the colors in between. "Hmm, where's the white crystal?" asked Henry.

Matt wandered into an alley, lined with more crystals as well as other things. A sign over it said, 'Condemned materials...DANGER!' He spotted a peculiar-looking object that slightly reminded him of an egg on a shelf and was reaching for it when he heard Ryo call, "Hey guys...over here."

The other quickly hurried over to find Ryo standing in front of a large white crystal. It was shaped like a diamond, only it was the size of a hubcap. "Dude, I could retire on that." said Matt, his mouth falling open.

"Probably, but I doubt you'd be allowed to leave this planet alive with it," said Rika.

"Good point, now then, let's see if we get to live," said Matt, grabbing the crystal and going rigid. A white light shot out from the crystal, sweeping over the group before going back in. "Uh, I didn't mean to do that," said Matt.

"Please tell me we're not going to be trapped in gems or something equally unpleasant," said Takato. "Nah, that'd be dumb., I pity the guy that comes across something like that," said Matt. The crystal throbbed for a second, the white light dimming for a second before changing to white again.

"Um, since it didn't go dark, does that mean we pass?" asked Takato. "Not yet," said Ryo, "We need to show Magnamon the crystal first." Matt grabbed it and turned to go. Impmon paused and said, "There's that screaming again." Matt turned and saw his old rival and the ratfink Commandramon running away from mechanical spiders, screaming loudly.

"That's not something you see every day. Those spider drones are really rare," said Matt, conversationally before the duo turned to run towards them. The gang had to leap out of the way really quickly to avoid being run into by Commandramon or Veemon. The spiderbots stopped dead, looking at them before scuttling away. Matt sighed before looking at the new Digimon. "It's horse boy and G.I Idiot," he said. "Ok, how is that of any significance?" asked Ryo.

"Well, it does allow me to get even for leaving me as a scapegoat," said Impmon, cracking his knuckles. "Not yet, I say we drag him back. He said you were dead," said Matt, evilly. "You're not returning at all," said Veemon, "Now give me that crystal." His dark tone was rather off since it was being said with a high-pitched nasal voice.

Matt peered down. "Or what, pee wee?" he said, trying not to laugh at Veemon's voice. "Or I'll, I'll...uh...VEE HEADBUTT!" Veemon charged at Matt and jumped up, hitting him in the stomach with his head. Matt went wide eyed. "Ooof...ya little jerk," said Matt, bringing his fist down on Veemon's head.

Veemon was knocked down to the ground and flattened. "Ow..." he moaned.

"You didn't really think this out much, did you?" said Matt. Veemon grinned and snatched the crystal. "Ya think? No crystal means you fail." Suddenly, the crystal started shining bright again. "Hmm, this should be interesting," said Henry.

Veemon looked confused before there was a flash and he was sent sailing over the storage alleys. "Impressive," said Matt, picking up the crystal before looking at the now, very alone Commandramon, trying to back away from Impmon.

"Listen, Impmon, it was nothing personal," said Commandramon, "It was every mon for himself."

"Yeah...this is for me," said Impmon, clocking Commandramon on the jaw and reading a fireball on his hand. Impmon yelled, "BADA-BOOM" and threw the fireball straight into Commandramon's face. Commandramon winced and backed away.

Matt picked up Commandramon by the helmet and lifted him to eye level. "Hi, now then, I hear you tried to waste Impmon. Is this true?" he said, grinning and forgetting his teeth were more reptilian now and as a result a lot more threatening.

Commandramon gulped and said, "Well, I wasn't trying to waste him specifically. I just hoped that they would go after him while I got away." "That's worse. I hate two timing cowards," said Matt, growling. "Ok, I wanted to go along with Veemon to make sure you guys blew it, but it was just payback for you punting me," said Commandramon, "I didn't want to break the crystal." Matt glared. "Still...ok, you come with us. Come on, ugly," said Matt.

--

The trip back to Meteor Mountain was relatively uneventful. Of course, the gang moved a little slower since they had to carry both the crystal and the bound Commandramon. Magnamon and Grumblemon were waiting outside. "You bring crystal?" said Grumblemon.

Matt grinned. "Yup, you get a crystal and get a creep absolutely free," said Matt, tossing both the crystal and Commandramon over. "Is there a particular reason you've tied up Commandramon with vines?" asked Magnamon. "I didn't have any barbed wire," said Matt.

Takato said, "Commandramon tried to ambush us at the ruins with that Veemon that tried to kill Blaze."

Magnamon frowned and said, "I had wondered why Veemon disappeared. It appears that humility is a lesson not easily learned for him." "A lesson not easily learned?" said Rika, "The word's not even in his vocabulary."

"He tried to break the crystal...oh...and Commandramon's account of the village attack was off by a bit. Impmon, c'mon down," said Matt. Impmon stepped forward and said, "That two-timer pushed into harm's way so he could escape. And by the way, I know for a fact these guys didn't tell anyone where the village was. I spotted one of the human's metal floating thingies tailing them."

"You couldn't have told us sooner?" said Takato in an annoyed tone. "There wasn't time to mention it," said Impmon. Grumblemon glared at Commandramon. "You fool Grumblemon?"

Matt muttered to Magnamon, "What a feat that would be," making the golden armour Digimon try not to laugh.

Magnamon took the crystal and said, "Well, by the crystal's clarity and Impmon's account, you are all innocent and no threat to this colony. However, it would seem that Veemon's punishment should be extended to banishment as well." "Don't worry, last I saw him he was headed for orbit," said Matt.

--

Back at the ruins, Veemon got up unsteadily. "Ow, my skull," he said, looking at the shattered crystals around him. He looked to see that the white crystal was gone. "Grr, if only I had my armor back, I'd destroy that interloper," he growled. "What about a better armor?" said a disembodied voice.

Veemon nearly went white himself. "Who said that?" he said weakly, hoping nobody would answer.

"You seek power, do you not?" said the voice, "You wish to command others and be held back by no authority?" "Yes...erm...you're not a robot spider are you?" said Veemon.

The dark voice chuckled and said, "I am far more than a mere construction of the creators. What would you say that the key to all your wishes lies in this very ruin?" "I'd say point the way," said Veemon, imagining Flare being impressed once he had power again.

The dark voice chuckled again and said, "I like your spirit. Just follow the trail." A thin dark cloud appeared, winding its way through the air. Veemon shrugged and walked along the trail. It led to a pile of debris. Veemon pulled the broken devices aside to see what looked like a blue orb held up by a metallic treelike base. "What the sovereigns?" he said.

"Use this armor and you will be the most powerful Armor Digimon on the planet," said the dark voice.

Veemon looked at it. "It's perfect," he said. As the Digiegg began to glow he said, "Who are you?"

"I am referred to by many names," said the voice, "The one you may use is Daemon." Veemon gulped. "Hey...wait a..." he began before the dark energy engulfed him. When the energy faded a new Digimon stood there. "Ah, Umdramon, it is good to have you in my service again," said Daemon's voice.

**Looks like Veemons joined the dark side (well, they do have cookies, after all). This could spell trouble for the gang. Join us next time to see what happens. Please R&R!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Digimon and related chars are property of Bandai.**

**Eve Online is the property of CCP Studios**

**Cerberus Industries and Matt are my property.**

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 5**

Captain Lias looked out at the barren wasteland below his Skiff class Mining Exhumer. It had confused both him and O.R.E's board of directors why Cerberus had allowed a small fleet to enter the system and start taking mining samples.

"What could out here that's worth digging up?" asked Lias. "Maybe they're after fossils," joked one of the crew.

"I dunno...an awful lot of military ships for a 'deserted' planet." siad Lias, thoughtfully. "Well, we don't get paid to just sit on our butts," said his first mate.

There was suddenly a loud bang and sparks flew from a panel. A crewman hit a switch and the background hum of the ships strip miner laser stopped. "Sod it, some kinda crystal got caught en route to the hold...messed up the system. "I'll send daniels down to get it loose."

Daniels was grumbling to himself as he headed for the drill, "Yeah, this is why I joined up, to play dentist for mining equipment."

The door into the processing system that cleaned out the dirt from collected ore was huge, full of mini versions of the strip miners and cog wheels...one slip up and he would not even have time to realize his fatal mistake.

The problem was clear, a piece of black crystal was jammed between two crusher wheels.

Daniels rolled his eyes and said, "A sophisticated hi-tech piece of machinery and it can still be stopped by a monkey wrench thrown into the works."

He pulled it out and nearly dropped it as a horrific chill shot down his spine. The last time he had been so terrified had been when a rogue drone swarm had caught the ship. The shields had been all but gone when O.R.E's support responce had arrived.

Daniels shook his head. "I need to take a vacation," he said, "I'm getting too tensed up."

--

However, not far away, a certain digimon was sitting in a meditating position. Then he felt a stir on the edge of his mind. He turned his attention to it and a dark voice said, "I have a mission for you, Umdramon."

Umdramon said "What are your orders, Master?" Daemons voice said "Humans have unearthed the crystal that holds me. They are noit far and will have to land for repairs shortly...kill them all and find me a host."

"Can you not simply be freed from your prison?" asked Umdramon. "No, you fool...I require a body." said Daemon angrily "So only your spirit is imprisoned in the crystal?" said Umdramon. "Yes...but if I am taken off planet I am doomed." said Daemon

"Fear not, master," said Umdramon, getting up, "They shall not leave this planet alive or dead." "Good....now hurry...time is short." said Daemon.

--

Matt was half asleep in the room that Magnamon had given him. The leader of the armor types had been kind enough to give him and the kids quarters till they worked out where they had to go, or in matts case, till he had another plan.

His minds was contemplating several things; how his capsuleers were doing without him, how to get off the planet and contact CONCORD, the mega-sized git Kurata, Magnamon's cute daughter Flare.

His eyes shot wide open at the last thought. "NO...BAD BRAIN!" he yelled, sitting up and hitting his head on the wall a few times.

Matt rubbed his head as he tried to clear Flare from his thoughts. Yes, she was a beautiful and kind woman (as reptilian Digimon go), but it's a bad idea to mix business with pleasure.

He stopped before sighing. Obviously this current clone came with free instincts. "The sooner I'm back hoime the sooner I can jump..." he began as Flare walked past and overheard.

"Jump what?" asked Flare. "Uh...jump onto a...rollercoaster," said Matt, "Yeah, I've been working too hard and I, uh, need a vacation."

Flare said "You say the weirdest thing...whats a rollercoaster?" she asked. Matt looked panicky for a second before saying. "Good lord...so tired, nighty night." he said and flopped back and began to do exaggerated snores.

Flare just smiled and said, "Good night," before walking out. Matt got up again and wandered outside to see Ryo outside too. "Not able to sleep either?" said Matt "Nope, afraid not," said Ryo. "So...what woke you?" said Matt, looking up.

"Homesickness," said Ryo, "When I first signed up, my dad expected to me to come back a hero. I wonder if this qualifies."

"Probably...I do know if I return Rika as she is to HER dad, I'll have a pretty large bounty on my head and will probably be on the amarr empire navies 'pod on sight' list." said Matt. "Not like any of us can go anywhere as we are," said Ryo.

"Nope...but it's not like a ships gonna fly overhead...thouhg I wish it would..." said Matt and the two digimon stopped as a skiff class flew overhead, heading for the next valley. Matt stopped for a second before saying "...I wish I had a titan class and 12 million credits." "Don't you already do?" asked Ryo.

"Yeah...but I want it here now." said Matt gloomily before suddenly smirking. "Did you see the cerberus markings on that ship?" "No, not really," said Ryo, "Though I can't really tell from this distance." "Thats because there wasn't any...what I DID see was an O.R.E symbol...I bet Kurata fed them the 'uninhabited planet' story. If we go spoil it..." said Matt, before grinning evilly and rubbing his hands together.

"And why would they believe a pair of talking lizards?" asked Ryo.

Matt glared at Ryo. "You realise how dumb that sounds?" "Very dumb," said Ryo. "Lets go be living witnesses...plus...how many talking lizards have capsuleer implants?" said Matt, pointing to the 'sockets that had been used to transfer them into these bodies.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," said Ryo. "Looks like they're landing...must be repairs...we can go tomorrow...I spent a year piloting a barge on contract for O.R.E...it took 3 days grounded to fix a faulty coupling." said Matt.

--

The next morning, Matt went to Magnamon regarding the crashed mining ship. It'll take some careful wording to explain why this could be helpful. Matt said "I know you don;t like mining ships...but O.R.E is not cerberus. They've been fooled as well...and they'll have a working communication suite." He pointed to a map. "They probably landed nearby...all we have to do is show up and Kurata will be kicked off planet by CONCORD faster then you can blink."

Magnamon did not look convinced. "Your kind has not shown themselves to be beings of honor. Of course, you and your companions have proven to be exceptions. How can I expect these men to any different from the ones who have attacked our homes?" he said.

"Do not judge us by one corporation...not all of them are evil. O.R.E are one of the good guys...and CONCORD are..." Matt said, pausing as he tried to describe CONCORD's job. "...they're like you...they work for justice." Magnamon considered this for a few minutes and said, "Even if you were right, how would you be able to convince them? I'm afraid that we Digimon aren't taken as seriously as you humans."

"Look...O.R.E don;t mine where there is sentient life...if only cause its bad press...imagine how angry they will be when they find out the pack of lies that Cerberus fed them." said Matt. Magnamon nodded and said, "I imagine that would be true. However, I think convincing them that you are, or were, humans is going to be even more difficult." "Just the fact we're talking...plus I have the access codes to my O.R.E business account..." said Matt smugly.

Magnamon frowned and said, "I'm afraid the ability to speak won't be that good enough evidence. Nearly all Digimon can speak, the feral ones being the acception. And I don't quite understand what that second thing you were speaking about means."

"But here is the point...O.R.E will not have met a digimon before." said Matt. Magnamon sighed "Then someone must go with you. That area is very dangerous any time of the year." he said. Matt shrugged, "Fair enough, I don't think I could really find my way through the wilderness."

--

Five minutes later and the gang were heading through the mountain landscape, heading for the valley that the Mining Skiff and landed in. Flare had come to guide them. "Its freezing." chattered Matt. "Yeah, I'm freezing my tail off," said Takato. "Mine too," said Ryo. "And this fur isn't insulating enough," said Rika. "Well, at least yours is long," chattered Henry.

Flare apparently seemed fine. "Oh, sorry...I forgot you're not used to the climate...try some of this." she said, pulling out a small leather bottle. "Take a sip of this each...no more thena sip." she said, passing the bottle to Ryo first.

Ryo sniffed it and winced. "Whew, I think that just fried up my nosehairs," said Ryo. "You're a reptile," said Rika, "You don't have hairs." Ryo shrugged and drank a drop before going bug eyed and grabbing his throat. "Oh, too much...eat some snow." said Flare, putting a fistful into Ryo's snout, making a cloud of steam come out. Matt gulped. Suddenly frostbite didn't seem so bad.

"Erm, on second thought, a little nippiness can't be too bad, right?" asked Takato. "If you don't mind a piece breaking off," said Flare, "You better have some before you lose your ears." Matt gulped and carefully let a drop go into his mouth, before coughing some smoke out. "Damn...whats in this stuff? Zydrine?" he said.

"Zydrine? You make up such silly words," said Flare, giggling. Takato was next and seemed fine till he burped up a pyro-sphere that blew a rock into molten form. Henry eyed the bottle with dubiousness. "Is that safe for us mammalian types?" he asked. "Usually." said Flare, carefully filling a dose for Rika.

--

In less time than Matt would have guess likely, they were down in the valley where they saw the ship land. "We ought to be careful...come out one or two at a time." said Matt, as they approached the final turn before the hill down into the valley. He stopped when he saw several coumns of oily black smoke. "No...no no no no...This isn't happening." he said, panicking and runnint the last few yards to a ridge overlooking the valley.

The ship was a lot more damaged-looking than he thought. His spirits dropped even further when he saw that the smoke was belching out of holes in the hull. He ran down the hill, ignoring the others cries and as he got closer he could see bodies lying around the place. Some of them wearing mining engineer uniforms, others holding ion rifles. All of them were dead from burns to the back or from horrific slashes across the chest or throat.

"That wasn't done by the crash," said Matt, "Someone did this." His claws clenched and the tips began to burn. "And whoever did this will pay," he growled. He heard movement behind him. "Flare..keep the kids back..." he said, easing the eyes of a security officer shut.

Flare looked sickened by the sight. "Who could have done this?" she asked. "I have no idea..." said Matt, lifting up a ion rifle and checking the clip. It was empty. The guy had gone down fighting. "We should check inside...there might be survivors." said Matt, getting up.

Flare gave the ship a dubious look. "Go inside a human's machine?" she asked. "Its just a ship...we'll be fine." said Matt, silently adding that he could pay a visit to the communication room.

The two of them climbed in through one of the holes in the hull. Matt expected the smoke to irritate his eyes and throat, but he was surprised to find that it hardly bothered him. There was a gasp from behind him as the others came into view of a massacre. "Keep an eye out in case the culprits still around." Matt called before waving to Ryo. Ryo had spent 5 months aboard his ship before he had been betrayed, working in engineering. "Might need your help." he said.

Ryo nodded numbly before looking up to where Matt and Flare had gone in. "Um, how do I get up there?" he asked. Matt leaned down and helped Ryo up. The inside of the ship was badly damaged. It looked like the breach had started here. Several more dead were scattered around. A heavy tritanium bulkhead blocked both ends of the corridor and red emergency lighting was online.

Flare looked at the steel wall and said, "We're going to have to work hard to break through." "No need," said Matt, "Ryo, you can work this kind of security, right?" "Yeah, though it would probably be easier if I had a full set of fingers," said Ryo. Matt wandered over to what looked like a box in the wall and tore it off to reveal a keypad. "There we go." he said.

Ryo walked over to it, but the keypad was clearly placed for someone of human height. Ryo could barely see the keys. "Um, a little boost please?" he asked. Matt lifted him up to keypad level to allow him reach. A minute later an amber light began to rotate and a siren sounded before the bulkhead slowly rose into the roof.

"There we go," said Matt as he put Ryo back down. Ryo growled to himself and said, "I am really get sick of being kid-sized." "It could be worse." said Matt, peering into the new corridor. More smoke was here, despite the absence of any fire. "Smoke without fire...thats new." said Matt.

Unknown to any of them, a red pair of eyes was watching them from in the shadows. "Finally, I shall my revenge on you, faker," growled Umdramon, "Then we'll see who's more worthy of being the next leader of the Armor Clan."

Daemons voice echoed from a crystal around Umdramon's neck. "Patience...attacking them while they are gathered, they will destroy you." Umdramon growled softly and said, "So what would you suggest?" "You have the power...use it." said Daemons amused voice.

Umdramon smirked to himself and said, "Yes, my powers are too much to use with weak humans. Let's see how effective they are against a Digimon." He looked before seeing the perfect victim, coming into the ship, The faker called Rika. Slowly he headed for him before, grabbing her and spraying a stream of the black smoke filling the ship into her nose and mouth, hissing 'Nightmare smog' before dropping her.

"Well done," said Daemon, "Soon, we shall have another ally, but you've got more work to do." Umdramon smirked, looking down as Rika who was twitching and whimpering in her coma before he shimmered back into the shadows.

--

Flare was not happy in this...mausoleum of a human vessel. She knew humans did not upload or delete on death but seeing their bodies scattered was unnerving...asnd why was Blaze and Ryo so intent on getting into that room. "I don't think there is anything in this thing that can help us," said Flare, "Whoever attacked this has done a decent job in making sure nothing remained."

Matt said. "Believe me...beyond this door is the means to kick these guys off-planet permanently." The door opened and more smoke billowed out, though the lighting showed no sign of damage. Ryo coughed and said, "Please don't tell me the ventilation's offline too?"

Matt looked around to see the smoke seemingly funnelling into a humanoid shape...one reaching for Ryo. "Uh, Ryo, I think you need to watch out for-" started Matt before the smoke suddenly lunged at Ryo and Ryo dropped onto the floor, apparently in a coma. Matt without thinking grabbed the pulse sidearm from a body and fired into the shape, sadly also crushing the handle. He then threw the useless blaster at the shape.

A dark voice chuckled before saying, "Those humans could not hurt me with their toys. Why should they perform better in your hands?" "You seem familiar? Have you menaced us before?" said Matt, he and Flare getting into fighting positions.

"As a matter of fact, I have," said the dark voice before the smoke solidified into a Digimon. His body seemed similar to a Flamedramon's, but his armor was black and he wore a black cloak and a metal mask. "Who the hell are you?" said Matt, angrily, spotting the brown marks on the figures claws.

The Digimon's eyes glared from underneath the mask and he said, "I shouldn't think that you would have forgotten me that easily. But I do look different then from the last time you saw me." "What are you talking about?" demanded Flare. "Oh, I'm sure you remember," said the Digimon, "Like when your father stripped me of my armor, rank, and honor."

"Saggutarimon?" said Flare in horror, before being hit in the face by a blast of the smoke, falling down coughing. Matt yelled angrily and tackled Umdramon to the ground and began bashing his head on the metal floor repeatedly.

Matt went rigid for a second before a shower of blood shot out the hit shoulder. Matt yelled in pain and was thrown back. Umdramon got up, smirking evilly, a ball seemingly made of the smoke in his hand. "I've been waiting a long time to do that," said Umdramon, "You think a human could become a leader of any Digimon Clan, let alone the Armor Clan? As soon as I'm finished with your fellow imposters, I'll see my old master about getting my position back. And by the way, I have a new name, Umdramon. But you'll never get the chance to ever say it."

"I just want to go home...do you understand me, you psycho?" said Matt, covertly reaching for a switch. "Then it shall be a great pity that you will never leave," said Umdramon. He was about to throw his smoke ball when Matt flipped the switch. Immediately, fire extinguishers activated and started spraying everywhere.

Umdramon yelled in pain as the smoke blasted him in the face. Matt got up and ran for it. He could only presume that his enemy had done the same thing to the others and if he joined them he could not help them. A ball of smoke hit him in the back, sending agony up his spine and down his throat as the smoke went into it.

Matt fell coughing to the floor. Umdramon walked up to him and smirked. "Goodnight, faker," said Umdramon, "Unpleasant dreams."

--

Matt opened his eyes and raised a hand to rub his eyes. He stopped in shock when he saw it was a human hand. "...I'm dreaming..." he said weakly, sitting up. He was in his childhood room. This must have been impossible.

"Am I dream too then?" said a voice. Matt turned around slowly and jumped backwards when he saw the scarred figure of Chloe. "Oh great...you again..." said Matt, gloomily. Chloe said "Why did you not kill my murderer?" "Didn't we already have this discussion?" asked Matt.

"No...I asked why you became a capsuleer...I know why now...you were a failure." siad Chloe coldly. "Shall we see why?" she said. The room shimmered into a busy street on Caldari Prime. The date could be seen on a holo-sign on a building...a day before the gallente took control of Caldari Prime...the day the first Caldari-Gallente war began.

Matt spotted a younger version of himself coming out of a junk shop. He was heading home when a special announcement appeared on a nearby digital bulletin. "Breaking news, the Gallente Federation city, Nouvelle Rouvenor was destroyed with casualties stated to be in the millions. Citizens should be cautious as there may be a chance that the Gallente Fleet may act violently and several deep space reports indicate a fleet has left Gallente Prime."

Matt looked on as his younger self looked up at the news report as it repeated. Chloe smirked. "You could have acted...not ignored it like your fellows." she said before waving a hand. The view vanished and was replaced with the same town. This time it was in flames, some buildings gone completely. A wing of Taranis interceptors flew overhead, firing a volley from their blasters groundside.

Matt grimaced and said, "You can't expect me to responsible for any of this." "But you are...many of the gallente immigrants fled home...you and your sister remained..." said the fake Chloe. Matt looked to see his younger self, covered in soot and bleeding from a shallow cut, running through the rubble. He was calling a name soundlessly, before seeing another figure come into view.

"Matt, what are you doing here?" said Chloe, "We need to get out of here." The real Matt turned angrily to the fake Chloe. "No...don't you dare show me this." he said. The fake Chloe smirked, if the movement on her face can be considered a smirk, and she said, "You don't get a say in this."

Matt turned back to see a gallente fighter fly in and strafe the street, a line of explosions shooting off. Both lynches were caught in it. Matt just turned away. He knew which one survived. The fake chloe laughed before changing the scene to the interior of a Gallente army field hospital...a doctor talking to his younger self in a bed.

Then Matt heard the fake Chloe say, "You were so torn up about losing your sister. But just a little bribery and you shoved it all under the rug." Matt actually aimed a punch that passed harmlessly through the fake. "Then you brought your way into the gallente navy capsuleers...all to find one man...and when you did...lets see, shall we?" she said.

The view changed again. Matt was 5 years older and much sterner looking. He was currently in a city, looking for a particular address. "Here we are...the day you let the chance slip through your fingers." said the doppelganger, making the view animate. A hovercar pulled up to a rather nice house. Matt watched his younger self tense up as a man got out and bent down to hug a 7 year old kid who ran out to greet him. "You know who he is." whispered the fake chloe. "Captain Seth Davindo." said Matt, gloomily.

The fake Chloe nodded and said, "That's right, the pilot that took my life." Matt sighed as his younger self sneaked round the back and knelt down to aim a automatic sniper rifle of minmatar design at the study behind the house.

Just as Matt was pulling the trigger, Seth's kid pulled on his dad's pant leg. Seth ducked down to see what he wanted just Matt's shot went off. Matt watched as his younger self opened fire in full automatic, forcing Seth to dive for cover behind his desk with his kid. Screaming, obviously from Seths wife could be heard. As soon as the rifle was depleted Matt's younger self pulled out a pulse pistol and walked towards the shattered window, walking in and blasting the running Seth in the shoulder.

Matt's younger self advanced at Seth, aiming straight at his head. Suddenly, Seth's kid ran up and put himself between Matt and his father. Matt shook his head. He didn't need the sound. He could hear it in his memory. Him yelling at the kid to move it, Seth's wife trying to tackle him from behind and him pistol whipping her down before he realised what he'd done and staring.

"You could avenged me that day, but your spine was too weak to carry it out. You let me down, brother," said the fake Chloe. Matt glared at the phantasm and said, "I am not weak." "Then prove it," said the fake Chloe, "Take another shot."

Suddenly sound shot into the world, the screaming kid, Seth's moan of pain and the sobbing of Seth's wife. "Take the shot...avenge me." said the fake Chloe in Matt's ear. Matt noticed he was occupying the position his younger self had been in. "No...No." he said.

"Do it, I've been waiting for centuries for you to avenge me," said the fake Chloe, "Don't chicken me out on me now. This is your last chance to give me closure. Do it now!" Matt turned. "No..." he said. The fake Chloe snarled and said, "Don't you dare disgrace me! You're going to kill that bastard now! Do it or you'll prove you're the same yellow-bellied coward you've always been!" Matt turned, swinging the gun around to aim. The doppelganger took a step back. "You're not my sister...get out of my HEAD!" yelled Matt before firing the entire clip charge.

The fake Chloe dissipated into digital particles, followed by the rest of the scene. Matt dropped the pistol which disintegrated as soon as it hit the non-existent floor. Then he broke down and started crying, but feeling less burdened than before.

--

Ryo opened his eyes weakly and pushed himself up to see he was human again. "What? How? Was that all some crazy-" A bright light suddenly lit up and Ryo winced at the change in brightness. "Ok, you worthless slugs, back to work!" barked a voice. His vision adjusted to show a sign that still haunted him. He was back on the asteroid mine where he had been a slave for nearly 4 years.

"What? How did I get back here?" asked Ryo. Suddenly, he felt an unpleasant zapping around his neck. He reached up to feel a control collar. A amarr templar soldier said "You heard the supervisor...back to work." grabbing Ryo and pulling him out the hut.

Ryo winced as he thrown roughly outside and onto the ground. "Stop laying about, get to work!" snapped the soldier before kicking him. The other slaves were working at manual systems, moving containers of ore to the refining area or to cargo for movement to cargo ships.

Ryo was pushed into the line of miners heading into the underground of the asteroid. He could remember this. According to the date on a view on the wall, this was the day that Matt had arrived, looking for crew members.

"Ok, I'm just having a flashback," said Ryo. He rubbed his hand against the control collar and added, "A very realistic flashback." At that time, the view seemed to blur for a second, probably as his mind fought against the illusion.

"You're here to work, not sightsee," snapped a voice, "Start digging!" Ryo looked at where the voice was coming from and was surprised to see an ill-matching face. "Dad?" said Ryo, "Is that you?" The supervisor, who had an uncanny resemblance to Ryo's father, glared and smacked Ryo back. "Like I could possibly the father of a dirt-shoving Minmatar. Going mad's no excuse for slacking off. Get working!"

Ryo stared in shock. This had to be a lie. His dad had been dead for 6 months when he had been sold to the asteroid colony. He didn't time to question it further when his 'father' cracked an electric whip near him and said, "Get to work before I throw you into the furnace!"

The next few hours were an unwelcome blast from the past. Most mining on Amarr asteroid colonies was done manually, using EVA suits and was insanely dangerous. Ryo tried to keep a cool head. "It's ok, I'm just reliving a bad experience," he said to himself as his AV was picking at the walls, "But if memory serves right, then I should be out of here in a few hours tops."

He stopped as he saw the arm overlook another slave in a mining space suit, pushing him back. The inside of the colony was not going well, several miners watching as only a handful of the miners were let in.

Then a voice came over the loudspeakers. "Attention slaves, due to necessary cutbacks, we have to lay off a couple of our 'employees'. So you'll just stay here and do whatever you want. Oh, you may eventually starve to death or run out of air to breathe, but, hey, that's better living than before, right?"

The miners didn't seem to think so. Many of them were still holding their mining cutters, designed to slice pieces of rock from asteroids, and very nasty against humans. "I've had enough of this." yelled a miner, firing his cutter at an Amarr supervisor, blasting a hole in him. The others charged the shocked supervisor staff. "Well, there's my cue," said Ryo, getting out of his AV.

He ducked into a side-tunnel, running for it. The Amarr security was already coming down hard judging from the gunshots that could be heard. Ryo looked to see a Cormorant class destroyer docked. "Alright, I just need to get on that ship and this whole nightmare will be over," said Ryo. But he couldn't help but think that he was forgetting something very important.

He ran round the corner to see a dead security officer, grabbing the guys laser pistol from instinct. The feeling of Déjà vu kicked in again. He ran round the corner to see his fa...his supervisor and two security officers at the airlock. "Where do you think you're going, slave?" demanded his supervisor.

Ryo cowered back, for a minute forgetting this was some perverted dream as the supervisor wearing his father's face waved to his fellows to kill him. He surprised them by bringing the pistol into view and shooting them both, catching the supervisor in the knee.

On instinct, Ryo brought his pistol to aim at his supervisor's face. However, that's when the supervisor's voice changed and he began speaking with a different tone, "You're such a disappointment, Ryo. You always found new ways to let down expectations." Ryo stared in horror. "You're not my dad...he died before I even came here." he said, his aim shaking.

His 'supervisor' laughed and said, "You really thought your memories of him would die so easily? He hoped you'd end up some big shot, one of the best in the capsuleers, maybe. You're still stuck doing dead-end jobs and the only way you're moving is down." Ryo glared "We were slaves...theere wasn;t another way." he said angrily.

Then the fake Ryo's dad changed tones again, "Son, you wouldn't just go off without me, would you? You don't want to turn your back on everything. Just keep your old man company. Stay here. There may be a better future here." Ryo stopped. It had certain appeal before he said "No...no. This is just a dream....I can't stay here." he said.

"What makes so sure it's a dream?" said Ryo's father, "That whip sure felt real, didn't it?" Ryo glared "I saw you die...I can't stay here." Ryo's 'Father' grinned. "You don't have a choice...rest...you've earned it." he said, his voice getting a dark echo to it.

Ryo frowned and said, "I don't take orders from Amarr, and I definitely don't take suggestions from ghosts, particularly fake ghosts." "How dare you disobey your..." said the fake, before being knocked back by a blast from Ryo's blaster.

The fake was 'dead' after the first few shots, but he had gotten Ryo's dander up enough that he just kept firing. Eventually, the fake's corpse dissipated into digital particles. Ryo just looked down as the rest of the 'world' began to vanish in the same manner, leaving the airlock alone. Ryo took a deep breath and walked through it.

--

Ryo stirred and opened his eyes. One second, he was going into the airlock onto Matt's ship, the next he was back in the crashed ship. The room still had black smoke in it. And the movement of his arms revealed that he was still a Digimon.

"Oh...it was nice to have proper hands just for a few minutes." he groaned, before hacking, more of the smoke coming out his throat and dissipating in the air. "Ow...nasty." he managed. Then he looked around to see Matt and Flare apparently asleep, but Matt looked like he was waking up.

Matt also coughed up the smoke before waking up with a sound like a wounded animal. "Arrgh...I'll kill that asshole." he said, angrily. Ryo shook his head and asked, "What hit me?" "That...damn asswipe. How dare he do that to me...that is my memory." said Matt, apparently not listening.

Then Matt saw Flare, who was still in her coma. "Hey. Hey! Wake up!" cried Matt. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, but it didn't have any response. Flare just made a weak mumble. Matt gently put her down again. "Lets find this guy and push him in the ore processor." said Matt nastily, getting up.

"Erm, who is this guy?" asked Ryo. "It's that damn Veemon again." said Matt. "How could he possibly do this?" asked Ryo, indicating the smog and the battle damage done to the ship. "Cause he's an asshole?" suggested Matt, peering round a corner to see Takato, also out cold. It looked like the others had wandered inside after them and been caught out by Umdramon.

"How could one Veemon be able to take us all out so easily?" asked Ryo. "He got some kinda mojo boost. He gassed us...which probably caused..." said Matt, before stopping. "What? Caused what?" asked Ryo. "...nightmares." said Matt bluntly.

"Oh, yeah, that would explain it," said Ryo, "But how comes we were able to wake up and they're still asleep?" "We beat our nightmares...wait...what happens if we don't?" said Matt. Just then, Takato began to stir. "Ah, looks like Takato managed to beat his nightmare," said Ryo. Matt looked at Ryo. "Is that your final answer?" he said uncertainly as Takato opened his eyes to show that they were glowing blood red.

"Uh, Takato, you feeling ok?" asked Ryo. Takato just growled and snapped, "PYRO SPHERE!" An orb of fire blasted out of his mouth at Matt and Ryo. Matt grabbed Ryo and hit the emergency bulkhead switch. "We can safely say that's a big fat no." he said, as the bulkhead shot down.

"Ok, so now we know what happens when you don't beat your nightmare," said Ryo, "Does this mean the others are going to attack us now?" "Do rogue drones eat peoples ship?" said Matt, sarcastically. "We gotta find Veemon mk 2 and beat him. He made this smog...he's probably powering it."

"But, what if he calls for the others?" asked Matt. "Relax," said Matt, "They'll never be able to get through that bulkhead. Besides, they're Rookies, I'm an Armor, I could handle them easily." "Erm...I hate to burst your bubble...but isn't flare a armor too?" said Ryo. Matt stared at the wall for a second. "Oh...bugger." he said, after trying out various words to describe his feelings at that moment.

"Ok, she's been asleep as long as Takato. It'll probably take her longer to be beaten," said Ryo. "How long have we been out though?" said Matt. He and Ryo exchanged glances before looking at Flare. "Let's go look for veemon...away from here." said Matt. "Right," said Ryo.

The two headed through the tunnels till they reached one of the skiffs security monitor stations. "Ok...lets see where our friend is hiding." said Matt, putting Ryo on the desk. As Ryo worked the controls, he asked, "Out of curiosity, what was your nightmare about?" "Ancient Gallentian proverb: None of your beeswax." said Matt.

"Yeah, I guess I could say the same thing," said Ryo. Apparently there was a noise as Umdramon looked up just before the container landed right on him. Matt laughed insanely. "TAKE THAT YOU GIANT JERK!" he yelled, before grabbing Ryo. "Let's go gloat." he said happily.

"Uh, you certain that beat him?" asked Ryo, "He looked a lot tougher than before." "He just had 800 tons fall on his head all at once...I think we can safely say he's dead...or at least severely inconvenienced." said Matt, adding the last after some thought. The two, after 10 minutes arrived in the cargo bay, to see the cargo container, which had left a deep depression in the floor and Flare, looking around with the same glowing red eyes.

"Uh, I don't think she's back to normal," said Matt. "Don't worry," said Matt, "I can take her, I think." Just then, another door opened and the other three came in, their eyes glowing red. "Ok, now we're screwed...but on the bright side...at least tall dark and stupid is nice and flat." said Matt, a little desperately. The side of the container began to glow and then melt, revealing Umdramon. "Oh, come on." said Matt in a upset voice.

Umdramon smirked and said, "I might be willing to give you a painless death if you surrender now." "What makes you think I'll surrender?" said Matt. "Because you have to deal with two Armors and three Rookies," said Umdramon, "That is not good odds." "Oh yeah, well, uh, I got him," said Matt, holding up Ryo. Matt looked at Ryo. "Urm...sic em?" he said.

Umdramon looked at Ryo before bursting out in laughter. "I have to say this for you, faker," said Umdramon, "You do have a good sense of humor." "And I have something to say about you...Up yours." said Matt. One thing was good about the claws..they made flipping the bird very easy.

Umdramon glared and said, "Enough banter. It's time to end this." "Ok..." said Matt, putting Ryo back down and jumping at Umdramon, only for Flare to kick him out the air. Umdramon smirked and made a waving motion. The others charged at Matt while Umdramon walked towards Ryo. "Lets try this again, shall we?" he said, readying another nightmare smog attack.

Ryo glared at him and said, "I broke free from that soot the first time. What makes you think I won't do it again?" Umdramon readied another in his other claws. "You WILL be my slave." he said, angrily. A light seemed to burn Ryo's eyes as he said, "I have been a slave for the last time!" Suddenly, bright light started to surround him, causing Umdramon to wince back. From that light, Ryo's voice could be heard saying, "Monodramon digivolve to... Strikedramon!"

Umdramon backed up from the digivolving Ryo. "No...you're just a human...you can't do that." he said, backing up.

When the light cleared, Ryo was as tall as he was when he was human. However, his body was still that of a blue lizard. But his white chest now had a red symbol on it and he was wearing green pants. Armor was attached to the back of his hands, his upper arms, his shoulders, his hips, his ankles, the tops of his feet, and the tip of his tail. His head was mostly covered by a metal helmet with a horn jutting backwards. Long red hair grew from under his helmet and down his back. Ryo flexed his neck and said, "Human in mind, but not in body."

Umdramon growled and charged Ryo, claws out. "Nullified Claws." he yelled, sending a trio of black claw slashes at Ryo. Ryo jumped out of the way and called, "STRIKE CLAW!" His claws became covered in flames and he slashed at Umdramon with them.

Umdramon was knocked backwards, sliding to a halt on his foot claws. "You cannot beat me..." he snarled, before sending another 'Nullified Claw' attack at Ryo. Ryo ducked under the attack and called, "STRIKE FANG!" Flames covered his body and he started charging at Umdramon. Before Umdramon could move, Ryo slammed into him.

Umdramon put his hands on Ryo's shoulders, both of them pushing hard against each other.

--

Meanwhile, Matt was not having a good day. On the plus side he was getting plenty of practise in how agile a Flamedramon was...on the minus side was the REASON why he was learning about the agility.

"Guys, come on, you're not gonna let that jerk order you around, are you?" said Matt as he we evaded his 'friends' and their attacks. He was forced to jump on top of another container as a fireball exploded where he had been. "Is that a yes?" he called.

"DIAMOND STORM!" shouted Rika as she threw a hailstorm of diamond projectiles at Matt. Matt yelped and jumped to avoid them. The projectiles shot into the side of a container covered in caldari warning symbols, causing a hail of sparks followed by wisps of smoke coming out of the holes.

"Um, please don't be what I think that is," said Matt. The problem with ore mining was that, along with the good ore...sometimes you got bad...like Red Pyroclaste that had a nasty habit of exploding without warning. It did this right now, setting several fires off and blowing the entire exterior wall out.

"Ok, for the record, that explosion was NOT my fault," said Matt. Takato and Henry had been knocked out by the blast but Rika and Flare were still going.

"You will submit or be destroyed," said Flare, her voice echoing darkly. "Well, since I'm getting destroyed either way, I'd rather fight," said Matt. Flare, or whoever was steering her body siad "Ok." before throwing a fire rocket attack at Matt, who dodged it. The fireball shot into another container, breaching it and causing another explosion as the ore was destabilized. "Does the word 'flammable' mean anything to you?" said Matt, angrily as several smaller containers began to shake as the heat started to effect their contents.

"For you, it shall mean your doom," said Flare. "Boy, that's witty," said Matt, "Whoever you really are, you're not representing Flare's creativity." Matt jumped to avoid another fireball to have Rika land on his back and start trying to bite him. "Sorry kid...have a nap." said Matt, grabbing Rika by her scruff and throwing her at Flare.

"Ok, better help Ryo before Umdramon smashes his..." started Matt when he looked to see Ryo fighting off against Umdramon and doing rather fine. "Ah man, why does all the cool stuff have to happen when I'm not looking?" moaned Matt.

Another fireball hit him in the back, knocking him off the front off the container he was on. "Ouch." he moaned before looking up to see Flare leaping down with the aim of driving her fist into his chest. He rolled to the side just in time.

"I guess you would be tougher, seeing you're the same level, and current species, as I am," said Matt. "Yeah...one difference." said Matt, before pulling a switch, opening the container over Flare. Luckily it was only half-full but the fist sized rocks that fell out were enough to knock Flare senseless. "...I fight sneaky." he said, checking she was only out cold.

--

Meanwhile, Umdramon was starting to lose his temper. "You are not a true Digimon, you cannot beat me!" he snapped, "UMBRA BLADE!" He swung a chain that had a pendulum-shaped blade on the end.

Ryo managed to dodge to the side but the blade carried on in its journey, slicing a piece out of a wall and sending a shower of sparks out from the wall. The two stopped in time to finally hear something that had been calmly sounding in the background. "Alert...fire detected in Ore storage...all personnel evacuate section 4. Ore detonation estimated at 12.4 minutes."

Ryo gave Matt an accusing look. "Uh, she did it," said Matt, pointing at the unconscious Flare. More explosions were heard in the background. "Can we take this where certain death is not imminent?" said Matt, angrily. "I will," said Umdramon as he pulled his chain back, "You won't." "I hate my life." said Matt. "Ryo...will you help me shut this guy up?" he said.

Ryo flexed his knuckles and said, "With pleasure." Matt and Ryo charged Umdramon who simply dodged both attacks before tripping Matt and punching Ryo. "You shall die on this ship!" shouted Umdramon as he slashed at them. Matt jumped out of range barely. "We'll all die on this ship if you don't use the brain you were born with. There's enough unstable ore on this ship to make a new valley." he said.

"More than enough to get rid of you then," said Umdramon, "NULLIFIED CLAWS!" Umdramon's hand was stopped half way and Daemons voice, only heard by him yelled "You fool...an explosion that big will destroy us both."

Umdramon snarled and said, "Fine, I'm leaving, but you aren't." He bolted for the door, knocking over several containers as he went. Matt and Ryo ran to the blocked double doors. "Dammit." yelled Matt. "Alert...ore implosion situation confirmed...Code blue. All personnel to the escape pods." said the computer. Groans from where the others were indicated they were waking, followed by Amarr and Gallente swearwords that confirmed that the mental control was gone.

"Ok, we need to get out of here before we're blown to bits," said Matt, "Or would that be bytes?" "I think the words 'blown to' should cause enough concern." said Ryo. "We need to be a mile away minimum." said Matt before slapping his Flamedramon mask. "The escape pods...dur." he said, before pointing. "Grab someone and head for the pods...port side...that should have a line of sight to get outta here."

"Do you think they'll work?" asked Ryo. "They better work, they're our only chance," said Matt. "Warning: Fires detected in Morphite storage...all personnel evacuate at once." said the computer as Matt pulled Flare into an escape pod. Behind him, Ryo helped Rika into an escape pod before putting Takato in too.

"I sure hope our projection's clear," said Matt as he put Henry into a pod. "Considering how fast these things launch, I don't think obstacles are going to be a problem," said Ryo. "All lifepods cleared for launch...stand by." said the computer. Doors further down the corridor began to shut and the ship shook as escape pods launched. Matt and Ryo managed to climb into their escape pods just in time. The cigar shaped lifepods shot out like rounds from a railgun, not even slowed down as they hit the rim of the valley.

Like Ryo had predicted, they shot right through, but that didn't mean they weren't rattled. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash and the pod Matt was in was sent spinning. He caught a brief glimpse of a dome of flame in the valley they had been in, the mountains surrounding it collapsing into the inferno. "Oh...crap." said Matt, shutting his eyes and making a note to buy proper dampners for the lifepods on his ships.

Umdramon watched the orb of fire grow before it started dissipating into smoke. "That was an unnecessary risk," said Daemon's voice, "You could have destroyed both of us." "Those...abominations are a pain." said Umdramon nastily.

"They still would have died in that explosion and still you fought them," snapped Daemon. "I wanted the satisfaction of disposing them myself," retorted Umdramon. Umdramon gripped his head in pain as Daemon said "You are MY minion...you will obey me or you will die." Eventually, the pain in Umdramon's head lessened and Daemon said, "However, I still have need of you. There is another Demon Lord nearby who needs to be released."

**Looks like Saggutarimons new form has a few...nasty tricks and Daemon has him on a jailbreak hunt...hopefully the gang are ok...tune in next time.**

**Additional ***O.R.E = Outer Ring Excevations.


	6. Chapter 6

**Digimon and related chars are property of Bandai.**

**Eve Online is the property of CCP Studios**

**Cerberus Industries and Matt are my property.**

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 6**

Matt winced as the G-force in the hurtling pod pressed him into the seat. It didn;t help that the seat was designed for a human. He managed to turn his head to see one of the other pods flying alongside.

Considering how escape pods are normally used to evacuate ship while they're still in space, Matt was relieved that the friction of shooting through an atmosphere didn't build up any noticable heat.

That was until the pod started to curve downwards towards a forested valley, towards a lake. Matt crossed his claws and hoped the pods computer knew what it was doing. A female voice calmly said "Warning...decelleration boosters damaged...impact in 5 seconds." Matt gulped and said, "I hope these things have airbags."

Several Gazimon were sitting near the lake when they heard a descending noise and looked up to see two fireballs heading for the lake. The two fireballs landed with a large splash, sending a large wave of water to the shore. The gazimon managed to whimper before the tidal wave the pods made swept them into a tree. "What was that?" said one of them, dizzily, hanging upside down from the top branch.

"Couldn't have been a meteor," said another, "It'd have land on Meteor Mountain." "Hey...do meteors talk?" said a third. Indeed several voices could be heard "...It wasn;t my fault...it was either the pods or a damn nuclear explosion in the face."

The Gazimon looked towards the now slightly more shallow lake. A pair of metallic pods were floating on the water, with some Digimon sitting on them, several of them giving the male Flamedramon an annoyed look.

The male reached down and pulled an unconscious female flamedramon onto the pod. "Ok, next time you're all controlled by a psychotic dude and the ships about to make a new crater, I'll play holo-taire instead." the male said sulkily.

**Unknown location**

Matt checked Flare. "She's ok...still sleeping off nutballs evil smoke." he said. "So that guy used to be Saggitarimon?" asked Henry, "Didn't think he was that bad." "He tried to kill me." protested Matt. Rika said witha foxy smirk. "Whats your point?" "He tried to kill all of us," said Ryo, "I don't know how he got that armor he was wearing, but it's definitely bad news."

"Yeah...he could pass off as a Sansha drone." said Matt. Flare coughed at that as she woke up with a groan and Matt said "I mean, I wonder where these human pods sent us?" Flare looked around and said, "This place looks familiar." "You've been here before?" asked Takato. "I think so," said Flare, "But my mind's too foggy right now."

Matt said "Yeah...Umdramon did a real number on you...tried to do a mind whammy on all of us..."

"Umdramon...I think I knew his voice. I still can't be lieve he was saggitarimon" said Flare before she shook her head gloomily. "I thought so...I thought the dark armour was just a myth." she said. Ryo said "Dark armour?" Flare said "It was made by one of the demon lords...apparently the creators locked it deep away." "Uh, did you say 'demon lords'?" asked Rika.

Flare nodded "They were really powerful digimon in the frst days. When the creators finally left, they ran amok before just...vanishing." she said "Hopefully Umdramon's upgrade has nothing to do with them," said Matt, "When you're feeling better, we should get moving." Flare looked around at the forest before spotting the watching Gazimon. "Hey...could you lot lend a claw?" she called

The Gazimon looked at each other and said, "Why should we?" Matt said "I know this answer...hold on...survival kit should be here...ah..." He leaned into the pod and came back holding a rocket. "Help us or die." he called.

The Gazimon gulped and one of them said, "Hey, hey, no need to get hostile." "We just want something in return," said another. "You don;t get blown up." retorted Matt. One of the Gazimon said "Hey...careful with the safety." Matt looked up and said faintly "Whats a 'safety'?" "Matt, don't you think you're overreacting?" said Henry.

"I've had a bad week...They're not allowed to have a good time till I do." said Matt. Takato saw it was prudent to step in. "Hey, if you help us out, we'll give a tasty snack." He pulled out a fish that gotten into the pod after it was opened. "You like fish?"

The Gazimon stared before running off. Matt glared "Thats it...how do you fire this thing?" he said, fiddling with the rocket before the Gazimon came back with some rope. "See, bribery is as good a motivator as, er, rockets," said Takato. "Blasphemy," said Matt.

The Gazimon tossed the rope over to the pod Takato was on first. "Hey...where;s our rope? Its only a matter of time before I find the instructions." yelled Matt, Flare tryiing hard not to laugh at him. "We only got one fish, so only one mon crosses," said one Gazimon. "Six fish for six mons," said another.

Matt glared and brought his fist on the top of the missile, igniting it and sending it shooting off to explode just beside the Gazimon. One of them said weakly "We could make an exception this once."

"It's all about haggling," said Matt smugly.

Flare leaned over and muttered "You didn;t mean to do that...did you." Matt muttered back "The secret dies with us."

**Meanwhile, 20 miles south… **

Umdramon was feeling a lot less smug than before. According to some heat signatures he picked up, Flare and the imposters had used escape pods to escape the explosion.

"Huh...the speed those things were going, their data will be smeared across the entire region. Dunno why I gotta make sure." he said to himself.

Suddenly, a spike of pain throbbed in his head. "Because I command you to find them," said Daemon's voice, "That's all the reason you'll ever need."

"But they're dead already. I may not know much about those human flying machines, but I do know you need to be awake to fly them." said Umdramon. Daemon sent another shot of pain "Fools...humans can create machines to do that. They were heading for the oracles valley...the last thing I need is my plan being revealed this early...NOW FIND THEM!" he said, roaring the last part painfully.

Umdramon winced in pain and managed to say, "Yes...yes, master." Daemon said "Good...now...you're going in the wrong direction...the valley is able to mislead intruders." "Yes master," said Umdramon before turning around.

Back in the valley, Matt looked into the survival packs from the pods and said "Ok...we have, supply-wise: 4 MRE's, a packet of potato chips and a tube of mint toothpaste." "What's an MRE?" asked Flare.

"This...try a bit." said Matt, ripping a foil pack open and tearing some of the yellow food out.

Flare looked at it curiously before popping it into her mouth. Instantly, she got a disgusted look on her face before she spat it out. "That's...revolting," she said.

"Yeah...tastes like socks." said Matt, eating a bit absently before making aface., "Excuse me..." he said before running for some bushes. "Only a Numemon would want to eat something like that," said Flare, "How can this be considered food?" "No idea..." said Matt, walking back. "I say we eat the toothpaste." "Blaze, can't we just find some fruit to eat?" asked Flare, "It would better than this...pre-packaged stuff."

Matt said "Yeah...I suppose." before looking around. Matt looked around before spotting a walnut tree. "Ah, this should be simple," he said to himself. He wandered up to it before looking up. "Mmmm...nuts." he said before jumping up to a branch.

Matt picked a nut and said, "Eh, couldn't be worse than MRE's." He popped it into his mouth.

The others were getting fruit when they heard a cracking noise and a scream. Matt came into view, holding his snout and swearing at a walnut in his other claw.

"Blaze, what happened?" asked Ryo. "That damn nut's too tough, that's what happened," snapped Matt, "I nearly broke a fang on it." Rika burst out laughing at that "You tried to eat a walnut without shelling it?" she said, wiping her eyes from laughing so hard. "You have to shell them?" asked Matt.

Flare was also laughing and said "Yeah...let me show you." she said, before crunching it up with a small fireball. Matt glared and muttered, "I would have done that eventually," before eating the walnut's meat. Rika said "Yeah...after a visit to the digi-dentist." before starting to laugh again.

Matt growled before saying, "I'm going to find some more nuts." Matt wandered deeper into the woods. "I shoulda left em here...but Nooooo. I had to listen to my conscience." he said to himself.

Suddenly, he heard something rustling in the bushes. Matt paused and looked around. He shook his head and said, "Oh sure, they can get some cheep laughs now, but we'll see who'll be laughing at the end. Maybe I'll rig their next clones to have a big wart or buckteeth or something."

He stopped as he heard another rustling noise, this time from the other side of the path he was on. "Ok...I KNOW YOU'RE THERE...IS THAT YOU, TAKATO?" "Matt, what are you yelling at?" asked Takato. Matt turned to him and said, "Oh, you're just hiding in the bushes over there and planning on jumping out and scaring me. But that won't work."

Takato waited patiently as Matt processed what he;d just said. "Wait...if you're there...then whose in the bushes?" he said. The bushes rustled some more and Matt got into a fighting stance. "Alright, come out with your claws up," he said. Just then, what looked like a bouncing blue ball of fur hopped out. It's body mainly resembled a cat's with an 'M' on the forehead and a tail. "Be careful, it probably smells fear," said Takato tauntingly.

Matt glared at Takato "Zip it, jurassic boy." he said before glaring at the fluff. "Never trust cute things...they're usually planning something." he added. "Look at this little guy," said Takato, "What harm could he possibly do?" The tiny digimon bounced over to Takato and under his snout before bouncing between his snout at the floor at high speed.

"Hey, quit it, stop!" said Takato as he tried to grab the Digimon. The Digimon kept bouncing along, apparently thinking it was a game of tag. Matt yelled angrily and tried to grab the digimon only for it to bounce off his head, dazing him, both him and Takato laying n the floor next to each other. "We never ever mention we were K'O'ed by a novelty hood ornament." he said in a dazed voice. "Agreed," said Takato.

**Five Minutes later**

The others were surprised when Matt and Takato came back. Flare said "Blaze...what happened to you? You have a black eye." Matt/Blaze said "Nothing...we fell over...alot." "Well, we need to get moving," said Henry, "Nice as this little spot is, I think I'd rather have a roof over my head."

"Sure...I'll call the lodge." said Matt, sarcastically. Flare said "There must be some caves around here...those Gazimon must have lived somewhere." "Well, it's getting dark," said Rika, "We better start looking if we want somewhere to sleep."

**30 minutes later,**

The group had been looking for ages. The others noticed that Takato and Matt seemed jumpier then usual. "What's with you two?" asked Rika, "Afraid the Boogeymon's gonna getcha?" "Boogeymon? They're around here?" asked Flare, looking around. Matt gulped and said "No...worse...killer fluff balls." he said in a low voice.

Rika laughed and said, "Matt, you really are pathetic." Flare said "Why do you keep calling Blaze that?" Rika looked panicky for a second and said "Erm...nickname." Matt glared and grumbled, "Am not pathetic..." This was undermined when someone shouted, "Who's there," causing Matt jump back with a 'yipe'.

Matt span around "Who's there? If its more of those fluffy little smeggers..." he said. Three lights approached them, revealing themselves to be lanterns held by smaller Digimon. They all look like plants, with two them looking partially reptillian, one had a pink flower on its head and the other had a sort of red helmet and purple flowers for hands. The third looked a seed with a pink face and spinning a pair of leaves on its head to make it hover.

"Ok...erm...hi. I hope you're not too upset...we kinda crashed a bit in the lake." said Matt. "We were wondering what that big crash was," said the Digimon with the pink flower. "So...erm...I'm M...Blaze. This is Flare, Rika, Ryo, Henry and Takato." said Matt, waving and trying to look as friendly as possible.

"Well, I'm Floramon," said the one with the red helmet, "And that's Palmon and Lalamon." "Hi, nice to meet you," said the seed-like Digimon who was just called Lalamon. Flare bowed before she said "Is there anywhere we can rest for the night? We will be gone in the morning." "Well, there is our mistress' house," said Palmon, the first Digimon who spoke, "She has plenty of spare room for guests."

Flare nodded and said "We are certainly grateful for your mistresses hospitality. Will you tell her we are coming?" Floramon muttered "We can try." "Uh, who is your mistress?" asked Ryo, "I'd rather know whose house I'd be staying at before I go there."

Palmon said "Her name is Babamon, the oracle. I thought everyone had known of her." Matt covertly kicked Ryo who said "Oh, that babamon. Sorry...we've had alot happen to us." "Well, just follow us and we can lead you there," said Lalamon. The group started to follow behind the trio. Matt said to Flare "So...who's this 'Babamon' then?"

"She's one of the eldest Digimon around," said Flare, "She also has a magic ball that allows her to see distant things and the future." Matt looked skeptical "See the future?" he said before adding "Pull the other one." "It's true," said Flare, "My father consulted her during times of hardship, like when there's been long periods of drought or floods."

Matt rolled his eyes. "This place is falling over with tech...its probably some kinda tech that does it." he said to himself. Flare said "Its said she's the last of the first digimon left alive." "Oh, she couldn't be THAT old," said Henry. Flare said "My father says that his grandfather used to meet ith Babamon for advice." Henry said "Thats old."

Just then, there seemed to be more light up ahead. As they passed around a few trees, they could see a house with several lanterns outside. It wasn't a big house, two floors, made of wood, but it did seem welcome. The group were led up to the house and Palmon opened the door. Floramon said "I'll just say that you're here." before she yelled "BABAMON...WE FOUND THE VISITORS!"

Henry winced, largely because of his big ears. "Did you have to shout so loud?" he asked. Floramon said "Yes...you'll see why...BABAMON. I SAID WE FOUND THE VISITORS YOU SAID WOULD TURN UP!" A voice called, "What? Solicitors? Tell them to go away!" Flare said "Whats a solicitor?" Lalamon said "We don;t know to be honest." Floramon yelled "ITS NOT SOLICITORS...ITS THE VISITORS!"

"Oh, visitors. Why didn't you say so?" called the voice. Then a Digimon walked into the room. She looked just a little old lady with a broom, except for the facts that her skin was a pale purple, her ears were pointed, and her mouth looked like it was stitched up. Matt waved before saying "Hi, I'm Blaze."

"What? You're crazed? How can you let crazy people in my house?" snapped Babamon. Matt stopped before clicking a mental gear into reverse. "Hi, I'm crazed." he said. Babamon said "Oh, your names Blaze...what a nice name, young mon."

Flare stepped forward and said loudly, "Hello, my name is Flare! You know my father, Magnamon!" Babamon looked confused, "The same care to show no bother, Jijimon?" Flare looked just as confused before yelling "NO...I...AM...MAGNAMONS...DAUGHTER...FLARE! FROM...METEOR...MOUNTAIN!" Babamon waved a hand and said "Ok, no need to shout...I'm not deaf."

Then Babamon smiled and said, "Flare, oh, it's been years! The last time I saw you, you were a wee bouncy DemiVeemon. Now you're all grown up and pretty, just like your mother." Flare blushed before turning to see the others wearing the neutral expression someone has when they are busting a gut, trying not to laugh.

"Babamon, not in front of my friends," said Flare. "Oh, you don't need to worry about the brunt of bad ends here," said Babamon, "This is a safe house, no one can harm you here." Matt finally snapped at that and fell over laughing. Flare glared at them before shouting to Babamon, "Here are my other friends; Takato, Henry, Rika and Ryo!"

Babamon nodded and said "Pleased to meet you, dears. I haven't seen your kind here for millenia." The others paused at that. Even Matt stopped laughing. "Er, I'm not sure what you mean," said Takato. "The pot needs to be seen?" asked Babamon, "Oh, that reminds me, I need to make dinner. You must be hungry."

The others watched as Babamon went off into the kitchen and Matt siad "She can see the future?" Babamon suddenly said "Bless you, blaze." Matt looked confused "Bless you?...ACHOO!" "Well, yes, she has the gift of foresight," said Floramon, "But while her sixth sense is sharp, her other sense is deteriorating."

"We kinda guessed that." said Matt. Palmon however said "What did she mean by 'your kind'? You're not the first digimon of your kind to visit." "Uh, I don't know," said Ryo, "She can see the future, maybe we've got some special destiny or something." Floramon shrugged "I don't know." before Babamon called "Floramon? Be a dear and help me please."

"COMING!" shouted Floramon before heading into the kitchen. Flare said "Babamon might be able to help us...She'll surely know how to get the dark armour off Saggutarimon." Ryo growled a bit before saying, "Frankly, I think we should just destroy the armor, with him still wearing it." Flare said "No...that would make us as bad as those humans."

"I suppose," said Matt, "Though I don't think he was much better before he got that armor." Flare said "He was a bit of a jerk...but he wasn;t a bad Mon...he just let jealousy get the better of him." "That's a big understatement," said Takato. Babamon suddenly appeared at the door from the kitchen with a pot of something, the smell of which made the groups mouthes water. "Come, dears. Eat up while its hot." she said.

**Later that evening...**

The group had gone to bed. Although Ryo had a slight bit of difficulty since he was determined to remain in his Strikedramon form. Matt said from where he was sleeping, leaned against the wall. "You know...it'll wear off eventually, just like it did with Takato." he said. "And go back to punting size? No thank you," said Ryo.

At that moment, he glowed and shrunk back down to monodramon size. "Told you." said Matt. Ryo growled and said, "I'm going to change back." He yawned and added, "First thing in the morning." Matt said "

Yeah. Good luck with that, kid." before managing to go to sleep...for about a minute. He woke to see Palmon prodding him. "What is it? Are we under attack?" Palmon looked confused and said "No?" Matt said "Ok...night night." and tried to go back to sleep again.

However, a slap from Palmon got him up again. "If you don't want to be cooked veggies, have a good reason," growled Matt. Palmon said "Babamon wants to see you...she didn;t say why." Matt said "Oh for heavens sake. Fine." he said, getting up. He followed Palmon until they came to Babamon, who was watching the flames in her fireplace.

Babamon didn't look up, instead saying "Thank you, Palmon dear. Could you leave us in peace for a while?" Palmon nodded before walking out of the room. Matt watched her go before he said to himself "I dunno why I'm trying to talk to her..." "I knew you were going to say that," said Babamon.

Matt jumped back with a yelp. "Gah...I knew you were fa..." he began before Babamon said in a miffed voice "I do not fake being deaf..." before she added "Oh sorry, dear. I spoke up too soon." Matt looked confused and asked, "Uh, how are you doing this?" "I just look a few seconds into the future to see what your response will be. It's rather tiring to do it all the time, so I reserve it for when I really need to converse with someone."

"So erm...why do you want to talk to me?" said Matt. Babamon said "Because its been so long since I last spoke to a human. Don;t be so surprised, dear. I was here when your people were still making this world safe to live on." Matt felt his stomach lurch in fear. "Uh, I had nothing to do with those miners. Well, partially something, but I am not on their side." "Of course not, dear. I can tell that straight away." said Babamon.

"So...you're not going to blow the whistle on me and my friends?" asked Matt. "Of course not. You haven;t done anything bad." said Babamon. Matt gave a sigh of relief and said, "So, is there any particular reason you asked for me in the middle of the night?" Babamon said "I think you should know...that at some point you will have to tell Flare the truth...about what you and your companions are."

"Well, her father already knows," said Matt, "He's pretty cool with it. I'm just not sure about her yet." Babamon sighed "Your peoples return has not been the shining moment of this world. You have to show her that not all humans are cruel...otherwise she will fall down the same path as Undramons host." she said, sadly.

"Whoa, whoa, rewind," said Matt, "Er, sorry, I know that's not your department, but did you say humans were here before?" "You've been to the ruins...I was only a young mon when they were still here. They had such high hopes for this place. Even I do not know why they left...they said something about Eden collapsing." said Babamon. Matt topped and said in a small voice "Eve...its eve that collapsed."

"What was that?" asked Babamon in a louder voice, "Speak up, I can't predict whispers." "Were you always hard of hearing?" muttered Matt. Babamon glared and brought her broom down on Matt's skull. "Respect your eldars." she said before continuing "Whatever the reason...we were alone for so long. My fellows reformatted one by one. Besides the demon lords, I'm the only one who remembers our origins...that and WARDEN...the machine they left behind." she continued.

"You really are that old?" asked Matt. "Yes, I serviced a lot of humans in my time," said Babamon, "You see that picture over there?" She pointed towards a framed poster on the wall. It portrayed an image of a beautiful woman wearing a skintight red costume with long black boots and thorny vines wrapped around her hands. Most of her head was hidden under a rose-shaped helmet, leavin only her lower face and blonde hair exposed.

Matt walked up. "Whose that supposed to be?" he said, looking at the picture. Babamon laughed "Thats me, dear...back when humans were here. I was quite the attraction." she said, before hobbling over and pointing to another picture, again of the younger palmon, this time with two grinning Inaki human's. Babamon looked sad for a second. "They were true example of human goodness."

Matt looked from the poster of the young Babamon, Rosemon it called her, and the present Babamon. The only semblence he could pick out was that they were both wearing the same jewel around their necks. He could have easily put in a crack about not aging well, but one broom whack was enough. "Yes, I would have hit you again, dear." said Babamon. Matt said "I just want to get these kids out of here safe and sound."

"Well, I would have to do a real look into the future to tell you how," said Babamon, "But that takes a lot of energy and I won't be able to hear you properly for a while before that. If only I can get these ears of mine treated." Matt said "It would be nice to know where Kurata's stashed the gear that can put the kids back in their bodies...or where their bodies are, come to that."

"Unfortunately, I'll have to rely on my actual hearing to tell you this and it's not as reliable as it used to be," said Babamon. "I guessed that...I'll just shout very loudly..." said Matt. "I think there may be a more convenient way," said Babamon, "Are you well-aquainted with computer programming?" "Yeah..." said Matt, suspiciously.

"Then I might ask you to see if you can update my hearing programing," said Babamon. Matt said "Erm...I don;t think I can do that...nobody knows how the old pre-collapse technology works." "I had a feeling you would say that," said Babamon, "But I think I know of a place where you can learn a bit about basic Digimon programming."

Matt said "Oh? A chance to look at terran tech?" he said. His alliance, the N.S.C had made their fortune on the contents of a terran cargo freighter that had floated into their territory and despite everything, Matt could hear the 'cha-ching'. Babamon's tone became a bit dark as she said, "You're not thinking of collecting it for less than noble reasons, are you?"

Matt was about to say 'No, of course not.' before realising she could certainly see the future before deciding that maybe copying the info for the future would not be worth the trouble. She pulled out a scroll and said, "Here's a map to show you how to get there. You can read a map, can't you?"

Matt said "Of course." before opening it and saying "Erm...do we get a car or something? This is miles." Babamon laughed "You're not human at the moment. You'll find that we can walk alot longer then a human can." "But I'll get bunions," said Matt. Babamon sighed "You should get some rest...it is a long road to where you need to go." she said.

"Well, I was hoping on resting when you woke me up- OW!" Matt rubbed his face where the broom hit him again.

**The next day**

The group were looking at the map while Flare had been called to talk to Babamon. "So...we get this progrm and give Babamon a hearing implant and then she'll tell us how to get our bodies back and to get out of here?" said Rika. "That's the basic scope," said Matt. Rika said "Fine. Lets get out of here so the amarr navy can ionize that nutcase scientist."

"Rika, you are aware of your race's policy towards 'liberating' others, right?" said Ryo. Rika glared "And what would a minmatar know? Your eldars invaded Mekios." she said. Ryo glared and retorted "To liberate minmatar who had been enslaved. I'm sure the digimon would love to have to rely on vitoc." Matt pushed between them "Ok...not the time and place for a CONCORD assembly session. Break it up." he said.

Ryo and Rika just turned their backs to each other and huffed. Matt rolled his eyes. "This is going to be a long trip."

**Meanwhile**

Flare looked at Babamon. "Why did you want to see me?" she asked. Babamon said "You don't trust humans...do you." "They leveled our forests, tore open our mountains," said Flare, "Have you not heard that Arbormon was destroyed by them?" Babamon sighed and shook her head "Humans are not all evil...would you say all virus types are evil?" she said.

Flare paused at that, thinking of Takato and Impmon in particular. "I haven't seen any decent examples suggesting otherwise." "Humans are like that." said Babamon, looking at the picture of the palmon smiling alongside the two uniformed humans. "I know that better then anyone. You should learn that too, young one."

"If I ever meet a human considerate enough to talk to me as an equal, I may listen," said Flare. Babamon looked at Flare. "Take my words to heart, dear. Not all humans are the same. Now, I believe your friend Blaze is waiting outside with his friends." she said. "Right," said Flare as she walked towards the door.

She walked out to see Blaze trying to stop Ryo and Rika from tearing each other apart. "Morning...oh, don;t mind these...kids these days...cultural differences will be the end of us." said Blaze with a desperate grin while keeping Rika from clawing Ryo. "I see..." said Flare uncertainly, "Well, are you guys ready to go?" Blaze nodded "Just one thing." he said before knocking Rika and Ryo;s heads together before roaring "GROW UP!"

Flare turned to Takato and asked, "What are they fighting about, anyways?" Takato said "Erm...you could say that their families don;t get along." "Ah, I've seen feuds like that," said Flare. "Probably not like this one." said Matt, thinking to some of the null sec fleet engagements involving the amarr and republic navies. "How far is it to this place again?" asked Henry.

"The next valley." said Matt, looking at the map. Flare looked over his shoulder before taking the map and turning it around. "Oh, sorry, wrong way," said Matt. Henry said "We're gonna get lost." in a dull voice.

**3 hours later**

Morale didn't pick up when the group had to wade through a swamp. "It's a good thing I'm not wearing boots," said Takato, "This mud would suck them right off." Rika said "Huh...at least you haven't got fur." Ryo said "Whats wrong? Not as down and dirty as you're used too?" Henry, who was hitching a ride on Takato;s head so he wouldn't get swamped covered his eyes. "Oh no." he muttered.

"Well you probably feel right at home among this muck," said Rika. Ryo glared "What did you say?" he growled. Matt said angrily "Don;t make me turn this expedition around." "Oh, I'm so sorry, did I offend the princess?" snapped Ryo. Rika snorted and said, "Compared to you, anyone would be royalty." "Then maybe I should clear the path for you," said Ryo as he stooped down and grabbed a handful of mud.

Rika glared, saying "You wouldn;t dare..." before Ryo's mud missile scored a direct hit on her face. The others watched as the two lunged at each other and rolled in the mud, trying to kill each other. "Thats it...I give up." said Matt, walking by them. "Hey, who can argue when good entertainment becomes available?" Matt looked up to see Impmon sitting on a branch. "Ok...how did you get here? Are you following us?" said Matt. Impmon said "Not exactly. I'm hiding from the numemon." Matt looked confused "Numemon?" he said, slowly.

Suddenly, the mud that Takato was sitting in bubbled. "Oh, Takato, really?" moaned Henry. "That wasn't me," said Takato. Impmon said "I think we should run. They really don't like visitors." Matt said "I can only see one..." before twelve green blobs with eyes on stalks popped up. Matt finished "...dozen."

"You guys are messing up our mud," said one of the Numemon. "Uh, actually, that would be them," said Matt, pointing at Ryo and Rika, who hadn't noticed the new arrivals yet. The numemon glared and held up what looked like pink "...poo? Oh, you have got to be kidding." said Matt.

**10 minutes later**

**Abandoned facility**

Fortunately enough, the gang did end up finding the facility, just not the way they would have preferred. Matt peered through the doors window at the numemon mob before glaring at Rika and Ryo. "I have had it with you two arguing. We're in this together so grow up. If you hadn;t been acting like...like babies, this wouldn;t have happened." he yelled at them. Impmon said "Not as much fun though." He had been unlucky enough to have been swept up in the chase.

"Now I really need a bath," said Rika as she examined the pink and brown stains in her fur. "No baths here unless the water still works after 250,000 years." said Matt, temporarily forgetting about Flare. "250,000 years?" asked Flare, "You think it's been that long?"

Matt stopped at that "It must be...look how old it is." he said. Ryo said "I wonder if anything still works." At those words, the lights turned on and an automated voice said "Welcome to Bandai research and maintenance laboratories...all visitors please check in with security."

"Huh, that's convenient," said Henry. The voice continued "Please be advised. A class five evacuatuon has been ordered...please back up all files before leaving." "I'm presuming that 'Class Five' is as high as it gets," said Ryo. The voice paused before saying "Scanning...your voice ID is not reqognised...please reiterate clearly or hold for bio-scan."

"We're not likely to pass bio-scan, are we?" said Ryo. "Probably not," said Matt. The voice repeated "Your voice ID is not reqognised...please reiterate clearly or hold for bio-scan." "So, you think we should risk it or just go on ahead?" asked Rika. Ryo said confidently "This place is falling apart...whatever was left behind is probably broken."

"Then how comes the automated system's still responding?" asked Takato. Flare said seriously "The makers left alot of still working devices...we should be careful." The voice finally said "Commencing scan...alert...class 4 exhibits in secure area...security and sedation teams proceed to reception plaza." "Uh, there's no one here to respond to that, right?" asked Takato.

"Security not responding...arming automated countermeasures..." said the voice. "You had to say it." said Ryo as several hatches opened and several metallic arachnids wandered out, its red optics peering at the group. "Uh, are these things anything like those spiderbots from where the white crystal was?" asked Henry. The first machine suddenly spat a blast of electricity that narrowly missed them, burning a hole in the wall. Another one tried to bring its front legs down on Rika to pin her.

"Ok, they are much more lethal," said Ryo, "I suggest evasive manoeuvres." Rika growled and punched the bot trying to pin her onto its back. "Huh..." she said smugly before looking back to see the bot reversing its leg joints so it didn't need to flip to get up. "Run." said Matt. The group didn't need more incentive. They ran as fast as they could away from the drones. The drones went after them at a deceptively slow pace...after all...the doors locked when they were active...there wasn't any escape.

**Research Facility**

Ryo and Rika were bringing up the rear as the group ran. "Well, this is all your fault," said Ryo. "My fault?" said Rika. "Yeah, you just to provoke the drone, didn't you?" Rika glared "You...you...savage." she said finally before a third drone literally smashed through the wall in front, cutting them off from the rest of the group. "Rogue units identified...terminating for reformat." it chimed.

"Reformating's probably not healthy for us, right?" said Ryo. "Terminating definitely isn't," said Rika. The drone took a step forward and suddenly stopped as the floor gave a sickening groan before giving way from under itself, Rika and Ryo, dropping them into a dark, dank corridor. The drop seemed to have been the last straw for the old drone, it having landed on the point of a broken pipe.

"Well, at least we're not get scrapped," said Ryo. Rika however had landed nose to nose with a skull that looked like it had been etched with acid. "Erm...are we sure about that?" she said. Opening your eyes to see a skull grinning at you tended to shatter any rage and replace it with sheer terror. Ryo looked in Rika's directions and saw the skull. "Ok, that's rather disconcerting."

There was a rather disturbing noise from down the corridor at that. "I think the skulls owner wants to add two more." said Ryo. "Forget it," said Rika, "If I'm leaving any bones behind, it's going to human." She then started running in the opposite direction. Ryo said "I wouldn't go that way." Rika stopped "Oh...and what would you know?" she said. Ryo said "The roar came from that direction."

"How would you know?" asked Rika. Ryo pointed to what looked like a purple cybernetic blob coming round the corner. "Oh, that's how," said Rika, "You think we're strong enough to fend it off?" The creature immediately gurgled something and spat a glob of acid that missed and landed on the drone before eating through it with ease. Ryo said "No, I don't think so." "In that case, I think we should run," said Rika. "Good idea," said Ryo.

**Meanwhile**

The group stopped at a T junction of corridors to catch their breath. "Dammit...ok...is everyone here?" said Matt. "Uh, I don't think so," said Flare, pointing out an absence of Rika and Ryo. Matt looked around. "Hell..." he said. "They'll be ok...Ryo's no pushover and those drones are as slow as a snail." "I just hope the drones are the only ones we have to worry about," said Flare. Impmon had pushed a pair of double doors open and said "Erm...you guys gotta see this."

Inside was a lab, relatively more well-preserved than what they've seen so far. The cause for the pristine condition scuttled into view, smaller, more lithe versions of the spider drones scuttling into view and replacing a section of circuitry on the wall. Several skeletons in ragged uniforms lay slumped on the floor or at the desks. "Ok, now that's plain creepy," said Matt.

Henry looked at them. "Its like they just fell asleep." Matt however had wandered over to a holo-computer terminal that had obviously been on at the time that whatever had killed the rooms inhabitants had struck. "Hmm." he said, bringing up the proper screen. Immediately a huge list of what were probably meant to be digimon came up...the same error 'bio-software update required' over and over.

A newer error message had a picture of a veemon next to it, saying 'Behaivoural data corruption. Reformat immediately.' "So what do you think all this was here for?" asked Takato, "Research?" Matt stopped as a line of familier pictures appeared, all with the name 'Unknown I.D' next to it...pictures of the kids as humans. He clicked it off as Flare came up, not wanting to see what she would do when she found out the kids identities.

"I think so...digimon medicine too..." he said, clicking down to find a picture of Babamon and pressing the 'patch' button and was surprised when a hatch opened and a small mauve pill popped out. "You think that's her hearing upgrade?" asked Henry. Matt nodded "Must be..." he said.

Suddenly the screen mentioning the Digimon in need of upgrades lit up again. The Veemon at the bottom was highlighted as an additional caption said 'Subject approaching proximity'.

Matt pressed the escape button only for the message to enlargen to fill the screen with a image that was obviously some form of security, showing the front doors literally melting. "Oh goody...its captain psycho cloud again." he said glumly.

**Facility maintenance tunnels**

Meanwhile, Ryo and Rika were still trying to escape the horrible blob that was chasing them. If the roars weren't enough to motivate them, the stench certainly was. They finally came to a T-junction before looking and saying "That way." pointing in opposite directions. "No way, we're going this way," said Rika. Ryo said "There isn;t any time to argue. For once in your life, listen."

"How do we know your way doesn't lead to certain doom?" asked Rika. A roar from behind brought them back to reality. Ryo glared before saying "Fine...go off like an idiot." before running off. "Fine," said Rika before running her way.

After a few minutes, Rika came across a flights of stairs lit with red lighting that led up to one of the main corridors and happily, the rest of the group. "Rika...than k the sovereigns. When we saw umdramon go into the lower levels...where's Ryo?" said Flare. "He was back there," said Rika, "Some creepy purple blob thing was chasing us, but he ran the wrong way." The others looked shocked at this. Matt said in a cold voice. "...and you just left him to be lunch?"

"Hey, I told him to go my way, but he was too stubborn to listen," said Rika. The others jumped as Matt grabbed her. "That is no excuse. What if that blobs got him?" he said angrily, not even noticing that he was growling. "What? You expect me to go back and get him?" asked Rika. Matt glared "This is why I can't stand Amarr...bloody superiority complexes." he muttered, letting her go. "We'll all go...including you." he said.

"Down to face Ol' Acidbreath? I think not," said Rika before yipeing at Matt picked her up by the scruff of her neck. "Listen here, princess, you're either going down there, or I will remove all your fur...with acid? Capish?" Rika glared "I won;t be like this forever." she whispered. Matt grinned toothily. "How do you know that?" he replied.

**Facility maintenance tunnels**

Meanwhile, Ryo was trying to find his way through the seemingly-endless maze underneath the facility. "Stupid 'holier then thou' amarr brat." he muttered, checking to make sure the blob hadn;t followed. Just then, the doorway Ryo was about to walk through suddenly slammed shut. Ryo stopped before turning to see another door slide shut. "Well, well, well...its a small world...eh, faker?" said a familier voice from the shadows.

"Oh no, not you again," said Ryo. Umdramon appeared from the shadows. "Yeah...and this time there's no digivolution to get you out of it..." he said with a smirk. "What makes you think I can't digivolve right now?" said Ryo. "Because I can tell you're low on energy...all that running around must have tired you out." said Umdramon, evilly. "Not for long," said Ryo, "I'll be at full strength soon enough."

Umdramon smirked before reaching for something in a pouch attached to his armour. "I know...but you won;t be fighting me." he said, pulling out something. "There's nothing you can say to persuade me to work with you," said Ryo. Umdramon laughed and revealed what he was holding, a blackened metal ring. "Who says you'll be willing?" before throwing it.

Ryo ducked under it, but the ring seemed to have a mind of its own and it flew around Ryo's neck. Ryo pulled at it "Grr...what is this...arrgh!" he said before a red light activated with a beep and searing pain shot through his head. Before everything went black, he heard Umdramon laughing cruelly.

**Meanwhile**

The others were looking around for Ryo. Of course, they were also on their guards for the purple blob monster as well. Rika pointed down a corridor. "He went that way." she said. The others had shown that they were not happy with her ditching Ryo. "Do you think the monster followed him?" asked Henry. Rika said "I'm sure he's fine." Flare said harshly "You shouldn't have left him."

"It was a living sludge monster," said Rika, "What would you have done?" "I would have stopped it. If I'm right, you met a Raremon...a champion class. You could both have stopped it had you stuck together." said Flare. "You've obviously never smelled anything like it before," said Rika. I have...raremon may smell bad...but they are rarely hostile for no reason." said Flare.

Matt turned the corner to come face to face with a lowered firedoor. "Dead end...are you sure he came this way, Rika?" he said. "Unless he doubled back at some point," said Rika. A familier voice said "Oh...he didn't." Matt glared and he and Flare got into a fighting stance. "Saggutarimon...the armours controlling you..." she called.

"Saggitarimon...a name I've outgrown," said the voice, "This armor is far more superior than the one your father took from me. In fact, the only armor I think would be better would be...his." Flare growled at that. Matt said "Easy there...he just wants you angry so you'll screw up." Umdramons voice said "You're still keeping up the charade, I see, Blaze." Rika said "Where's Ryo, you lowlife?"

"He's right here, of course," said Umdramon's voice, "If you want your friend back, I can arrange for it." Rika was already thinking 'This maniac could have done anything to Ryo and it was all because I couldn't stop being a jerk.' "Where is he?" she growled.

"Over here." The shadows parted and Ryo stepped forward. However, something was wrong about him, namely that his eyes were glowing red. The others stepped back at that. "Ryo...erm...you feeling ok? Thats some nasty red eye you've got there." said Matt. "Uh, I get a bad feeling that Ryo's not himself at the moment," said Takato. Umdramon phased into view. "Actually, he;s thinking quite clearly." he said, circling them.

"Let me guess, by 'thinking quite clearly', you mean 'not thinking at all because you're controlling his mind'," said Rika. "Not as such...but close enough." said Umdramon. Matt said "He;s still small...you're still basically solo...and this time you've got no evil gas." "Is that so?" asked Umdramon, "Ryo, I command you to digivolve."

Matt looked confused before seeing Ryo glow with a purple energy, changing into a darker version of strikedramon. Umdramon said "Now help me kill these idiots." Ryo roared before running forward, claws unsheathed. Umdramon also leapt at Matt and Flare, punching Matt down before swiping at Flare. Meanwhile, Ryo seemed to prefer to target Rika. "I'll kill you, you amarr scum." he snarled, his pupils practically invisible.

"Uh, can't we discuss this like rational beings?" asked Rika. Ryo snarled, punching the lunging Takato aside. "Never...I'll show you all the mercy your people show mine." he hissed. "Well, it's just mind control," said Henry, "It's 'mind control by amplifying all the negative emotions and pointing them at someone'. Sucks to be you right now." Rika dodged a slash before Ryo managed to knock her flying. "Ryo...Ryo...you don't know what you're doing." she said.

"Oh, I know what I'm doing," said Ryo, "I'm getting rid of the snobbiest girl I've ever met." "Ryo...you're not a killer. You're right...I should have listened to you...if we hadn't been at each others throats." said Rika. "You think that's gonna save you?" said Ryo before slashing at her again. Rika said "I'm...I'm sorry." backing up from the advancing champion. Ryo paused at that, "What did you say?" Rika said "I'm sorry...alright? I should have treated you like a human being..."

Ryo's growling became calmer. He still looked scary, but not as threatening. Rika said "This isn't you...Umdramons twisting your mind." "Enough stalling," said Umdramon, "Ryo, finish them off." Ryo growled, his eyes blazing red before grabbing his head. Rika glared and said "You leave him alone, you sorry excuse for a creature."

"Look who's talking," said Umdramon, "A being like you shouldn't be soiling this world." Flare made an attack at Umdramon only to be blasted back. "Wait your turn, dear." said Umdramon before aiming his attack at Rika. "At least I can make it so you don;t soil it for much longer." he said. "NULLIFIED CLAW!" Umdramon's claws glowed red as he slashed towards Rika. However, he had some unexpected interference when Ryo stepped in the way.

Rika watched in horror as Ryo was sent flying back, a shattered ring falling down and shrinking back into a bruised version of his rookie form. Umdramon smirked "Emotional idiot." he said.

However, Rika's vision turned red as she snarled and tackled Umdramon, clawing and biting anything she could. Umdramon was completely caught off guard. "What the? Get off me. NULLIFIED CLAW!" he said, sending an attack at Rika who simply phased from view to reappear behind him and yelling 'DIAMOND STORM!' and sending a hail of white fist sized diamonds into Umdramons back.

"Ow, ow, ow! Quit it!" snapped Umdramon, surprised a Rookie could be causing this much pain. Rika glared before saying 'Power paw' making her paws seem to be covered in blue flames. Umdramon just managed to shield his face before Rika began letting loose a nasty hail of punches and kicks.

"Whoa, didn't think Rika had such a fiery temper," said Matt. Umdramon finally staggered back from the blows into Flare, turning in time to be punched by her. "That was for threatening my father," said Flare. Umdramon staggered back from the blow and into Matt who kneed him "And thats for playing 'sansha' with one of the kids." he said before gently pushing him over.

Takato turned to Henry and said, "Do we have any personal grievances with him?" "Except for being a jerk, no," said Henry. Matt pulled Umdramon up and muttered quietly "Where I come from...we kill jerks like you and keep the bodies as trophies." "So what are you holding back for?" retorted Umdramon. "Because Flare would be upset if I tore your throat out." said Matt, a manic look on his face. "Go away...and if I even smell you...next time I'll just pretend Flare isn't here." before slashing Umdramon with his claws.

"Next time, you won't even get the chance to smell me," said Umdramon before he melted into the shadows. Flare through this had been quite shocked by Matt's actions. "Blaze...are you ok?" she said carefully. "I...have issues with creeps like him," said Matt.

Flare put a friendly paw on Matt's shoulder before saying "Lets just get out of here and back to Babamon." Takato nodded "Yeah...lets...urgh...whats that...smell?" he said, turning to see the purple blob digimon blocking the only door. "So that's the Raremon that was chasing you," said Henry. Takato covered his nose and said, "You weren't kidding about the smell."

Matt and Flare looked worried as the Raremon advanced on the group before opening a mouth menacingly and saying "Finally, you stand still...do any of you guys know where the door is? I've been here for days...what?" Matt started giggling. What was disconcerting about it was that it sounded a little strained, as if Matt wasn't quite in his normal mindset right now.

Rika said, in a nasal voice due to covering her snout said "Why were you gurgling and spitting at me and Ryo earlier then?" Raremon said "I got a cold, ok?" "Hee, hee, hee, the giant blob has a cold," said Matt distantly. Flare looked at Matt before sighing and saying "The exits this way...we'll show you where." Matt finally burst out laughing at that.

**Valley of Babamon**

That evening, they were back at Babamon's house. Babamon was drinking tea to help down that pill she took. Babamon said "Ah...thats much better. Its nice to be able to hear properly again. It was very kind of you to help an old digimon." "It was no problem," said Flare. "What do you mean 'no problem'? We almost- OW!" said Ryo, the last part was added when Rika kicked him.

Babamon chuckled to herself. "Yes...those old control collars were always troublesome..." before adding "I'm sure I can tell you something to help you." "Wait, you knew that Umdramon was going to ambush us all along?" asked Rika. "I can see the possible future...but I can't tell if its the right one. What if I had told you and you'd blundered into a worse trap?" said Babamon. "There were worse traps?" asked Impmon.

"Probably...for example, a dark tyrannomon with a toothache was only a few minutes walk south." said Babamon. There was a long pause before Matt said, "So...about that look into the future." Babamon nodded before opening a cabinet. Inside it was a large crystal ball. "Now, let's see what the future brings for you," she said as she put it on the table. She stared deep into it, conjuring images. She expected to see how they may leave the planet, but instead, she saw images of great battles, devastation, and terrible evils.

The view skipped back to see dozens of worlds devastated with several familiar enshadowed shapes. Babamon gave a cry of fright before falling backwards. Flare and Matt jumped up at that. "Hey...you ok?" Matt said. "There is much more at stake than you know," said Babamon. Flare helped Babamon to a seat and said "What do you mean?"

"Great evil is attempting to take this world," said Babamon. "Yeah, that Kurata creep, we know about him," said Takato. Babamon said sternly "No...he is just the opportunity...this cannot be correct. The demon lords were destroyed millennia ago." "Uh, these Demon Lord guys, they're just Digimon, right?" asked Henry.

"They are the ones who destroyed the creators...and people I called friend. It took every digimon's effort to defeat their plans...they were supposedly deleted forever." said Babamon, looking saddened. "Well, data can't write itself," said Rika, "Did they have a backup copy or something?" "They must have...those poor creator fools." said Babamon.

"You think that Umdramon may be related to this?" asked Flare. "The original Umdramon was a creature of pure evil...a flamedramon tempted by Daemons promises. Even his armour was too terrible even after his destruction." said Babamon. "So, what difference would it make that a former Saggitarimon is wearing it?" asked Matt.

"The armours essence would bury any goodness he once had...he can only be brought back as he was if you can convince him to remove the armour." said Babamon. "Can't I just take a crowbar to him? Er, I mean, it?" asked Matt. "No...the only other way is to delete the armours host." said Babamon. "Well, er, let's save the option for last," said Matt. Babamon fixed Matt with a penetrating gaze and said "Be careful...soon you'll have to make a choice of what to do...both choices will have consequences." she said.

As a Capsuleer captain, Matt's been jaded against the most serious of situations in the galaxy. But something about Babamon's words sent shivers straight to his soul. Flare said "There must be something we can do...my father will be able to..." before Babamon interrupted "There will be no time...your path takes you to the darkness realm." she said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Takato, "I like this world pretty well, but going to the afterlife to battle demons is pretty excessive." Babamon laughed "The darkness realm is just underground on the far side of the fire fields." she said. Henry said "That doesn't sound much better."

"The Fire Fields is a long way away," said Flare, "I have been near there for years." Babamon said "This would be a good time to visit then...its just as far to get back to Meteor Mountain." "Oh, more walking?" groaned Henry, "My ears are still covered with dust from the last long walk." Babamon smiled "Oh...I'm sure you'll be fine, dear...in fact...I'm certain that you'll get back exactly what you lost at the end." she said, knowingly.

"Well, good luck with that," said Impmon, walking towards the door, "Me, I've got people to see, places to go, pranks to pull." Babamon said "You're not going anywhere, young mon." "Uh, this is their problem, not mine," said Impmon, "I don't need to be facing Demon Lords." Babamon said "That dark tyrannomons still around." "I think I know how to avoid an ill-tempered lizard," said Impmon.

Babamon went over before grabbing Impmon by the ear. "These digimon do not know the way to the realm of darkness...and you do. They will need your help." she said in a tone that said that while there was danger in going with the gang, that was nothing compared to Babamon in a bad mood. "Er, so, what about provisions?" asked Impmon. Babamon said "My helpers were kind enough to make you up some supplies." in her kindly voice again.

"So when do we have to be going?" asked Takato. "You should leave as soon as possible. I hate to rush you away but time is of the essence." said Babamon. "Right," said Flare, "But we should warn my father. If the Demon Lords are rising again..." "There is no time...their plans are already in motion." said Babamon. Flare still looked worried. "Hey, your dad can handle himself," said Matt, "He's held his own so far, right?"

Flare seemed hesitant for a minute before saying "You're right." Babamon said "I will try to send him a message to him."

**Later**

Babamon had been working on the message to Magnamon in her room when she sensed a shape behind her. "I know you're there, Umdramon. I remember you when you had your own body...when you took my human friends from me." she said, not turning around. "Don't quite remember that," said Umdramon, "Don't have my predecessor's memories."

"You and your master have no right. You were once a noble digimon until Daemons promises lured you to evil." said Babamon. "Promises that will be answered far sooner than when I would have waited under Magnamon's thumb," said Umdramon. Babamon laughed to herself. "You poor, poor fool. Do you think that you are the first to wear that...abomination of a digi-armour?" she said.

"Heard about a predecessor," said Umdramon, "But I guess he didn't make the cut." Babamon turned to face Umdramon finally. "So...why has your puppeteer sent you?" she said sternly. "Can't have any loose threads tying us up," said Umdramon. Babamon laughed "Daemon...still using others. You're too late. They are on their way and nothing you can do will stop them." she said.

"Well, I'll have to catch up to them," said Umdramon, "But I can't have you warning anyone else." Babamon said "Yes...I know, dear." before a 'nullified claw' attack ploughed into her. "So, would you rather let your data drift of shall I put it to more...pragmatic uses?" asked Umdramon. Babamon laughed "You would never be able to use my data." she taunted from where the blast had knocked her. "Pity, such good data going to waste," said Umdramon, "But that necklace looks useful." Babamon sighed "You truly have no idea..." At that, Babamon grinned. "Very well..."

Umdramon grinned under his helmet before snatching off the necklace. "Any last words, old woman?" he said. Babamon said in a sinisterly cheerful voice. "I'll see you again very soon." Umdramon shrugged and said, "Crackpot. NULLIFIED CLAW!" Babamon actually laughed as she vanished. Umdramon looked at the necklace he had grabbed before pocketing it. "Old fool." he muttered.

**End of Chap 6**

**So the gang now know where to go and that something bad is on the card...but what is Daemon planning?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Digimon and related chars are property of Bandai.**

**Eve Online is the property of CCP Studios**

**Cerberus Industries and Matt are my property.**

**Digital Eden**

**Chapter 7**

In a secluded section of the Forest region, a small idol sat inside the knothole of a massive tree. The idol resembled some kind of flower with many vines connection to the blossom, which had a mouth in the center of it.

The secluded area would have worried any human as a careful look would have revealed what was left of security fences and walls...all smashed. After a minute, the idol beeped and an energy pulse came out of it, settling in front of the idol and taking shape.

When the energy had become solid, it had assumed the form of an enormous lizard-like creature. Its main body was covered with what looked like grass, with the spikes on its back, its legs, two tails, and its head seeming to be made of wood. Around its neck were several red petals.

The new Digimon looked around before looking as a half dozen of wardens octo-drones scuttled into view around it. A voice came from the lead drone, "Please remain calm...your bio-neural net requires an immediate reboot," the drone slowly getting closer.

The Digimon opened his mouth and its tongue emerged. The tongue wrapped the drone pulled it back into its mouth. The others all started firing various weapons...for all the good it would do them.

**24 Hours later...**

"Are we lost?" said Matt, looking around. "I'm sure that tree looks familiar."

"Of course it would," said Rika, "You can't tell the difference between one tree and the other." "So you won't need to put scratches in tree's anymore then to mark the route," said Matt, smugly. "It's common sense," said Rika, "Something you seem to lack."

"Hmm...yeah, I suppose. I thought Amarr were supposed to be savvy? You fell for my trick so easily," said Matt. "What trick?" asked Flare. Matt stopped with a horrified look. "Oh...just a little prank that was played on her once," he said innocently. Rika rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not going to even dignify that with a comment."

Matt said, "So...what is this lovely piece of real estate called?" looking around.

"I'm not sure," said Flare, "But I think Arbormon's secret retreat may be around here."

"Secret retreat?" asked Takato. "Each of the Ten Legendary Warriors have their own secluded place where they go to when they need healing," said Flare, "According to some rumors, Arbormon's is in the oldest part of the forest, where Wood is strongest."

Impmon said "Arbormon? Last I saw, those humans vaporized him." "So we've heard," said Matt with a bit of gloom in his voice. But then he perked up and said, "Well, since he's not around anymore, we may as well check out his place." The kids rolled their eyes at this. "Typical capsuleer," muttered Rika to herself. Flare and Impmon looked horrified though.

"Blaze...what are you saying?" said Flare in shock. "What? There's no laws against graverobbing, right?" asked Matt. Flare said angrily, "Have you no respect?" Matt said to himself, "That's a yes then..." "Doesn't have much tact, does he?" said Henry to Ryo. "I heard that," said Matt. Flare said coldly, "If we have to go to the dark realm...we have to go through anyway."

Ok, fine, I promise I won't touch anything," said Matt before glancing up and spying a particularly tasty-looking fruit hanging from a tree. "Er, right after I have a snack," he said before jumping into the tree towards the fruit. Flare looked around at that and said, "Blaze...thats not a good idea."

Matt stopped for a second before his stomach rumbled. "I'm starving though," he said before plucking it. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" snapped a tiny voice. Matt paused and looked around. "Uh, who said that?" "Me, you big grubber!" Matt looked at the 'fruit' in his hand to see that it had three vines for a tail and arms, a beaked face, and feathers on its head.

Matt nearly dropped the 'veggie' from shock. "SMEG...WHAT THE HELL?" he yelled, jumping back. The Vegiemon shook one 'fist' at Matt and said, "Yeah, you better freak out. Nobody messes with me." Matt looked thoughtful for a second before he said, "Hmm...think this through...I'm holding you in one hand...and I'm hungry...you really wanna start something?" "You wouldn't feel that way if my big brother was here," said the Vegiemon. "Ooh, I'm so scared," said Matt sarcastically. The Vegiemon glared at Matt before shouting, "ISAAC!"

Then a large red version of Vegiemon dropped onto the other end of the branch and said, "How about you pick on someone your own size?" Matt stared at the RedVegiemon and muttered, "Wake up, Matt, wake up..." 'Isaac' looked at Matt who now seemed to be staring at nothing and was making a funny 'burble' noise. "Darris? This little punk making trouble for you?" "He was gonna eat me," said Darris.

Isaac glared at Matt before glaring at the others. "Is this guy with you?" he said

"Unfortunately," said Rika, "But you can smack him around a bit just to make sure he's learned his lesson." Isaac looked at Matt before gently taking Darris out his grip. "Now then...just stay there," he said before bringing one of his vines down on Matt's head, driving him into the soft ground.

When the stars eventually cleared from Matt's vision, the first thing he noticed was everyone else laughing at him, excluding the Vegiemon brothers who had left. Matt glared and dug his hands into the ground, eventually pulling himself free. "Ha ha...let's all laugh at the luckless Digimon," he muttered. Rika paused in her laughing long enough to say, "Man, Matt, you are useless in the wilderness."

Matt glared. "Hey...I'll have you know that I'm usually quite good in the wilderness...kid," he said, putting emphasis on 'kid'. "Yeah right," said Rika, "You wouldn't last 24 hours out here on your own." "Yeah...how long would you last?" said Matt, smugly. "Much longer than you, that's for certain," said Rika. "Yeah right...no servants...no allowance," said Matt, grinning.

"I am not as dependent on others as you think," said Rika, "I'm no pampered princess, I knew that when-" She paused and looked at Flare before continuing, "I was going to leave my village, my parents weren't going to be supportive. I've learned what it takes to survive. But you, I bet you've never seen a real tree before you came here."

Matt snapped at that, a fresh image of his burning hometown jumping into his mind. He was across to Rika and pinning her to a tree, finally reminding Rika that all capsuleers were basically on a hair trigger. "Watch what you say, kid...before I give you your first clone jump. Oh wait...you're not a capsuleer," he said icily. Impmon yawned and said, "How about you two stop throwin' insults and start throwin' down datadollars?"

Rika and Matt paused and turned to Impmon. "Come again?" asked Matt. "Ya know, you two see which one of ya's better at roughin' it in the woods by spendin' a day out there without us babysittin' ya." Matt turned to look at Rika with a manic grin. "That's a GREAT idea," he said, with a worrying amount of glee. Rika rolled her eyes and said, "Two easy, you'd probably only last 10 minutes before you start crying for mommy."

Matt grinned before muttering, "I was at the Agintal Incursion 300 years ago. Why should I be scared of a few bushes?" before he let go. Flare began to say, "Of all the stupid...what are you? You're acting like a couple of in-trainings..." "She's right," said Henry. "Well it's about time someone agreed with-" Henry continued, "You haven't put down any stakes yet."

Matt's grin got a little more manic. "That's right...standard rule...winner gets something...loser gets podded...or ridicule...whichever is easier," he said. Rika thought for a moment before smirking and saying, "Ok, how about this, the loser has to carry the winner on their back until the next reststop?" Matt said, "Fine...but if I WIN...you have to admit that I know a little more then you, ya spoiled...person." "But WHEN I win, you have to admit that you barely have any idea what you're doing," said Rika.

Matt glared, he and Rika nose to nose. "You're on," he said "So, what should the rest of us do?" asked Ryo. Flare sighed. "We're not going to leave you alone...but I suppose you will have to be self sufficient. We won't help either of you," she said, rubbing her forehead in exasperation. "Fine with me," said Impmon, lying on a branch, "Wake me up when the tenderfoot comes limpin' back." Flare said, "Oh no you don't...you're going to pull your weight on this trip." Impmon groaned and muttered, "Stupid tourists."

**Five minutes later...**

The group were not enjoying the contest. Matt had set up his own 'camp' a few feet from the main camp and had actually managed to get a fire going with a flame fist attack. Rika however had experienced her own luck in finding food that didn't talk back.

"Hey Matt, it's been a while since you last eaten, right?" called Rika, "Bet your stomach's begging for some pre-packaged food right now." "Well, at least when I have my food, it'll be cooked," called Matt, "Not to mention I'll be warm tonight. That fur coat won't keep out all the coldness." Rika glared. "Yeah right. What's on your menu? Pinecones?" she yelled. "It'll probably be tastier than yours," yelled Matt.

"Oh? I don't think so," said Rika before taking a bite out of a pear, "Mmm... oh, it's so good. Oh yeah, that really hits the spot. So juicy and sweet, oooooohh..." Ryo pointed a thumb at Rika and said, "I'll have what she's having." Matt glared and said, "Try it cooked," before sending a small fireball at the pear.

Rika quickly held up a thick branch which both saved her pear and left her with a nicely-burning flame. "Thanks for the fire," she called tauntingly. Matt said, "No problem...'OOPS'!" 'accidentally' sending a fireball into Rika's pile of fruit. "Clumsy me," he said evilly. Rika glared and said, "Fine, I can find more fruit, more than you'll ever get."

"Yeah...and on that day...the Empress will tapdance on my head." said Matt smugly.

The fur on Rika's neck stood up and she growled, "You better be careful or you're about to get about two dozen diamond piercings." "Oh...losing your temper isn't very efficient," said Matt, making Rika glare and throw her new fire branch which sadly hit Matt's fire, extinguishing both as it was smashed.

Matt shrugged and said, "Big deal, I can make another fire." Embers started to gather around his hands. "How about making a fire the old-fashioned way for a change, or do you even know how?" called Rika. Flare spoke up at that. "That's fair. No more using attacks to start fires...and no more shadow shifting to get fruit from tree, Rika," she said, adding the last part as Rika started to smirk.

Matt shrugged and said, "Fine, how hard could it be?" He picked up two sticks and started rubbing them against each other, positive he'd have a roaring fire in no time.

**5 Hours later...**

Neither Rika or Matt were happy. Rika had been unable to get much more food and Matt's combustion experiments had not yielded much results. "Come on baby, light my fire," muttered Matt. "You know, there's nothing more pathetic than a flame-retardant dragon," called Rika.

Matt looked annoyed before calling, "Hey, Rika, you blew fire!" When Rika turned to look, Matt called, "No, my mistake, just hot air." Rika growled and was about to reply when of all people, Takato yelled "JUST SHUT UP...WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP!" The two of them paused before Matt muttered, "I'm gonna get more firewood." He got up and walked into the forest.

Rika said, "I'm off food hunting." Takato said with a yawn, "Good...I'm off back to sleep…" before settling down to sleep again. Matt wandered about the trees, picking up fallen branches. "That princess doesn't know who she's dealing with," said Matt, "I can't wait to ride all the way tomorrow." He paused and said, "I probably should have phrased that better."

He looked at a particularly promising branch and grabbed it, to find it stuck. He said to himself, "Stupid root...wait...I'm on a world with living potatoes..." before saying out loud, "Is this someone's foot?"

Just then, what he thought was a grassy hill nearby stood up. However, on the bright side, it wasn't its foot that Matt was grabbing, it was its tail. The 'hill' turned to look at Matt with a look of annoyance. "Oh no," said Matt weakly.

**Rika's location**

Rika was kicking a tree to make several fruit fall down when she heard someone running in her direction. Rika quickly got into a defensive position. It was probably some nocturnal predator looking for its next meal. It turned out to be Matt. "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. EVEN THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!" he screamed, tearing by.

Rika watched Matt run with confusion. "Sheesh, I didn't think he'd go mad that fast," she said. She stopped as she sensed something else behind her and turned to be nose to nose with the 'hill'. "Uh, nice...big...wooden...dragon..." she said nervously. The Digimon roared in her face, revealing some very business-like dentistry. "Right..." said Rika before running in the opposite direction.

**Main camp...**

The group all woke in shock as they heard a distant roar. "What was that?" said Impmon weakly. "Whatever it was, it sounded either angry or hungry," said Ryo.

Henry said, "Maybe Blaze found something else to eat?" only for Matt to come into view. "I knew it. I should have stayed at home. At least there the ground isn't out to get you," he was saying to himself.

"What are you babbling about now?" asked Impmon. "The hills are alive..." said Matt before grabbing Impmon and pulling him eye to eye. "ALIVE, I TELL YOU!" he yelled. "Matt, you didn't happen to eat any peculiar-looking berries, have you?" asked Takato. Matt turned to look. "No...the trees are rebelling...heheheh," he said, clearly starting to lose it.

"Incidentally, I think this qualifies as losing the bet," said Impmon. Rika ran into view at that. "There's some kind of...dragon-hill after me," she said panting before seeing Matt. "See, I told you the hill had eyes and teeth," said Matt. Flare said, "What did this...hill look like?" "Like a big lizard made of grass and wood," said Rika.

Matt nodded "Yes, that's it. We need to do something. I don;t want to be beaten BY my greens," he said "I don't believe any of this until I've seen it with my own eyes," said Henry. There was a crash at that and the culprit of Matt's current fragile mental state smashed into view. "Ok, now I believe it," said Henry. Flare said in awe, "By the makers...it's Petaldramon." "Nice to meet him," said Takato, "Now I think we should run."

Flare said "Why? This is just Arbormon's beast form. Petaldramon...we don't mean to..." only for Matt to pull her out of a slash's path. "Talk later, run now," he said

Petaldramon roared before shouting, "LEAF CYCLONE!" A whirlwind made of leaves shot out of his mouth. "MUCH LATER!" yelled Matt, dodging one of the leafs that embedded itself in solid wood more effectively than any knife by his head. "Mummy," he said weakly.

Despite the imminent danger, Rika couldn't help but smirk and said, "Told you that you'd be crying for mommy." Petaldramon however turned to look. "Grah..." he said before charging at her. "Oh, right," said Rika before she leapt up into a tree. Petaldramon skidded to a halt under the tree before trying to reach for her. Rika quickly leapt to another tree and said, "I think we should go now."

Flare was staring in shock however. "What's wrong with him?" she said. Matt said bluntly, "He's nuts, that's what." Takato and Ryo quickly digivolved to their Growlmon and Strikedramon respectively. "THORN JAB!" Petaldramon stood on his front legs before sticking his tails into the ground. The ground around Takato and Ryo started to shake.

The two Champion levels looked at each other before they were knocked over as several wooden spikes shot out of the ground. "Uh, how about we fight it later?" asked Impmon, "Or maybe not at all?" Petaldramon turned at Impmon's voice. "Virus…" he hissed and went for Impmon, who was luckily grabbed by Flare in time. "Uh, I stand by my fleeing idea," said Impmon.

Flare nodded. "He's right, we cannot fight him. He has years of experience over us," she said. "Finally some sense," said Matt, "Let's make like a tree and leave." The group quickly ran for it, including Takato and Ryo who had been forced back to Rookie by the thorn jab attack. Rika and Matt quickly ended up running in the same direction.

"This has got to be the craziest night of my life," said Rika. "Not even in my top 5," said Matt. The duo came to a halt after a minute. "I think we lost that overgrown vine. Hey...where's the rest of the gang?" said Rika. Matt looked around to see only Rika nearby. "I guess we got split up," said Matt. "Great, just great," grumbled Rika, "I'm stuck out in the middle of the woods and I've only got a half-brain for company."

She stopped as she heard the tail end of Matt saying "...stuck with a spoiled Amarr brat with a fur coat." "You're the reason I'm stuck in this fur coat in the first place!" snapped Rika. Matt glared and retorted, "You Amarr are all the same: noses stuck so far in the air you don't really need starships to reach other planets." "Well, at least I'm not responsible for, I don't know, selling us to Kurata, blowing our chance to escape, twice, got us stuck out in the middle of nowhere..."

Matt glared at that "Now hang on, I'd be here in a fleet instead of a scale suit by now if you hadn't bodged my plan and sneaked onto the shuttle," he said only for Rika to yell, "AND NOW YOU'VE LET THE OTHERS GET EATEN BY AN OVERGROWN FLOWER!" "You mean the one you got ticked off in the first place?" asked Matt, "And you abandoned them too."

Rika snorted, "You're a fool. You capsuleers don't care about us 'mere mortals'," she said scathingly. "Now listen here..." said Matt in a stern voice. "My family's probably going to be worried sick about me. But what do you care? You capsuleers don't know the first thing about family." Matt stopped at that. "What did you say?" he said in a low voice.

"You capsuleers don't care about any relatives. You lose them in a couple years anyways. No one to leave behind, no one to come home to," said Rika, "You start from nowhere and you go nowhere." Matt roared angrily, seeing red. A minute later, he snapped out of it to see Rika knocked over and staring in terror. "You...you know nothing about me...NOTHING!" he said, angrily. Rika couldn't think of any response, snide or otherwise.

Matt pulled her up. "You have no right. You and the rest of the Amarr...I've lived dozens of times and in all my time, the Amarr have disgusted me the most. Slavery...it puts you barely a step above the nation," he said, practically spitting acid.

The air seemed to buzz with Matt's rage. Then Rika realized that there really was buzzing and it wasn't coming from Matt. Suddenly, a swarm of dragonfly-like Digimon came down from the tree branches. "What is here? Intruders? Food?" said one of the digimon in a buzzing voice. "Both," said another, "And just in time for supper." Matt glared at them. "Go...away." he said in a strained voice, his head pounding.

The Yanmamon obviously had more stomach than brains. "They shall make a fine meal," said another as they swarmed in. Matt swiped at one only for another to use an attack called 'Thunder Ray' on his back. Matt's growling got even louder as his pupils shrank down into pinpricks. The Yanmamon who attacked him paused too long before Matt's claws hit it.

Rika watched as Matt went to town on the yanmamon, literally tearing them apart and not even bothering with his attacks. The Yanmamon barely had time to register that they were not the predators now. The Flamedramon they had met was a lot more powerful than they had thought.

The last two Yanmamon tried to fly off only for two fire rocket fireballs to hit them. Matt then turned to look around, Rika having had the sense to shift out of sight. He seemed to be sniffing around. Rika gulped. Considering how mad he was at her before and how feral he was right now, being found by Matt would be a really bad thing. Worse, she was still a bit rusty with her shadow shifting and she could already feel herself exhausting.

Matt growled as he started to get closer to Rika's hiding place. Rika gulped and was prepared for a terminal meeting with Matt's clawed gauntlets when a voice said "BLAZE...STOP!" and Flare came into view. Matt turned towards her and snarled. Flare got into a fighting stance. "Blaze...you must concentrate...control your instincts." she said in a calm, level voice.

Matt just growled, his claws ready to strike. Flare sighed "Very well." and easily spun to the side as Matt lunged, grabbing his arm and throwing his enter of balance off. Matt stumbled before turning and getting a faceful of Flare's foot. Flare said "Are you ready to...?" before Matt practically roared and aimed a slash that, had it connected, would have been fatal. Luckily Flare had one thing Matt didn't...life experience.

She ducked under the blow before going around and catching his other arm in an armlock. Matt roared and tried to get loose only to be head slammed into a tree trunk, the masks blade getting stuck. As Matt tried to pull himself free, Flare noticed there was a mark on the back of his neck. Flare looked at it to see a metallic plate barely the size of a stone. Any further examination was abandoned as Matt pulled himself loose, only for Flare to punch him on the snout.

Matt yelped and clutched at his nose. Then he said nasally, "Ow, that really hurts." Flare had been about to hit him again and stopped. "Blaze...I'm sorry...you obviously haven't had much time with your armour form. You had a battle rage attack." she said apologetically before stopping and saying, apparently to the air. "You can phase back now, Rika."

Rika emerged from the shadows and said, "That was close, I thought he'd might try to eat me." "No...he would have just deleted and uploaded your data." said Flare before saying "Sorry...I suppose thats not much better." "No, it's not," said Rika before pausing and saying, "You think that is what's happening with Petaldramon?"

"It must be...it happens when a digimon is either unused to their new powers or they had a traumatic deletion before their regeneration." said Flare. Matt said. "You seem to know alot about this." Flare looked embarrassed. "Erm...I had a little...episode when I recieved my own armour data." she said. "Is that common?" asked Matt. "More than you think," said Flare. Rika said "Hmm...I guess you're not such a rookie after all, Ma, erm...Blaze. Flare, have you seen the others?"

"I have," said Flare, "Petaldramon was following them. I would have tried to help, but I noticed you two were not with them." Rika glared at Matt. "I thought he was following you. This is his fault..." she began. "This is not the time for this!" snapped Flare, "The others are in danger and that's far more important than your petty squabbles." Rika nodded "I suppose you're right." she said, glowering at Matt. Matt however said "We gotta find them."

**Petaldramons lair**

Meanwhile, the others were tied up to trees by vines. Petaldramon was pacing back and forth in front of them, glaring at them the whole while. Impmon said nervously "Erm...Mr Petaldramon...you don;t mind me calling you 'Mr'...do you? We didn;t mean to intrude...Did I mention that you look really great for someone who was shot with a tank?"

"Intruders..." growled Petaldramon. "No...tourists...thats it, Tourists." said Impmon desperately, quoting a word he'd heard humans say once. "Yeah, we were just passing through," said Henry, "We didn't even know it was your territory." Petaldramon turned to growl at Henry "Intruders not welcome." he said. "Then we'll be sure to leave right away as soon as you untie us," said Ryo. "Intruders don't leave. They bring more intruders next time." said Petaldramon angrily.

"No, no, we'll be gone for good when we go," said Takato. Petaldramon actually grinned before saying "You will...you will." "Uh, that does not sound like a good thing," said Ryo.

**Meanwhile... **

Flare, Matt and Rika were heading through the forest. Matt jumped on top of a fallen log to peer ahead. "So...whats the plan? Beat Petaldramon senseless?" he said. "No, we have to beat the sense back into Petaldramon," said Flare. "Oh...that'll be fun...how tough is he, out of interest?" said Rika. "Well, he is one of the Legendary Warriors, and the Beast forms are stronger than their Human forms," said Flare.

Matt and Rika both gulped. "That sounds...fun." said Matt weakly. "Frankly, it's a larger version of what I did to Matt," said Flare. "What? We gotta punch Petaldramon on the nose?" asked Rika. "No...if you tried that, he;d most likely eat and absorb you. We need to work together...exhaust him. Thats how you snap a digimon out of battle rage." said Flare.

"Oh, that'll be easy," said Rika sarcastically, "Let's just make him run after us until he's pooped, that'll solve everything." Flare said "Both of you...calm down. We can do this if we work together." "Oh sure, calm down about taking on a giant Venus flytrap," said Matt. Flare stopped. "Wait...listen." she whispered.

The three of them paused and they heard a voice saying, "No one intrude in Petaldramon's territory. Wood Region is home. Intruders not harm home." "Good lord...the daisy talks." muttered Matt to Rika. "Not too well, I might add," said Rika. "Well, Arbormon wasn't really a Shakespearean actor either," said Matt. Flare said "Quiet...he'll hear us."

Suddenly the deep voice said, "What was that?" The trio turned as Petaldramon reared into view. "MORE INTRUDERS!" he roared and lunged at Flare who was tackled by Matt, both of them rolling out of sight. Petaldramon growled before focusing on Rika. Rika gulped as Petaldramon glared "A renamon." he hissed. "Uh, fur really sticks in your throat?" said Rika. "CRUSH INTRUDER!" Petaldramon roared before sending a leaf cyclone in Rika's direction.

Rika jumped into the shadows and disappeared, just in time before the attack tore apart the place she was at. Petaldramon roared before sniffing around. "I smell you, little Renamon. You are weak, little renamon." he hissed, scuttling around for Rika.

"Weak in body, but not in spirit, or mind." Suddenly, Rika leapt out of the shadows and onto Petaldramon's back. She grabbed the petals on his neck and pulled hard. Petaldramon roared before rearing up and trying to roll to get her off. "GET OFF!" he roared.

"This is actually fun," said Rika as she held onto Petaldramon like a bucking bronco. Petaldramon roared and headed for a tree with the clear intent of scratching the annoying digimon off his back.

However, Rika jumped off at the last second and Petaldramon just ended up bashing himself against the tree. Rika was just as surprised at that show of agility. Petaldramon roared and lunged at her again. However, a pair of fireballs hit Petaldramon's side, causing him to catch on fire. Petaldramon roared to face Flare and Matt. "TOO MANY INTRUDERS!" he roared.

"Uh, you think he's wearing down?" asked Matt. Petaldramon blasted them back, sending them rolling back down, landing on top of each other. They landed near Impmon who said, "That's sweet, but shouldn't you take her on a date first?" Flare and Matt jumped apart, blushing. Matt finally said "Why couldn't he have knocked you out?" Takato said from where he was cacooned "Er...could you get us out first?"

"Oh, right," said Matt before slashing through the vines. Takato slipped out of the cacoon and went over to Ryo's cacoon while Flare tore Henry loose. "Hmm...sorely tempted to leave Impmon there." said Matt, looking at Impmon thoughtfully. "Hey, can't you take a joke?" asked Impmon before whispering, "I've got great datin' advice if you want it."

Flare and Matt both glared at Impmon who gulped. "Or not..." he said before Matt sliced one root so Impmon fell out, landing on his head.

**Meanwhile...**

Rika had gotten onto Petaldramon's back again and was hanging onto his back spikes. Petaldramon was bucking to get her off. "I'LL CRUSH EVERY PIECE OF DATA OUT OF YOU!" he roared. "This...is...why...I...don't...ride...hovercycles!" said Rika as she struggled to hang on.

Petaldramon finally managed to throw Rika off. "NOW I CRUSH YOU!" he roared before Takato and Ryo in champion form tackled him. "Dogpile on Timbersaurus!" shouted Matt. "You're kidding, right?" asked Henry before Matt picked him up by the ears and tossed him at Petaldramon. Impmon backed up before Matt threw him too where Petaldramon accidentally swallowed him.

Petaldramon seemed confused until the two Flamedramon jumped onto him. Flare said "Petaldramon...be calm. We are not intruders. You are the legendary warrior, Arbormon, regenerated." "GET OFF ME!" shouted Petaldramon as he tried to throw off the Digimon on his back. Matt said "Oh for heavens sake..." before bringing down both his fists down on Petaldramons head.

"OW!" shouted Petaldramon before he continued to buck. But the collective weight of the Digimon on his back was too heavy to throw off. Eventually, his bucks lost their energy and Petaldramon started panting with exhaustion. Petaldramon said in a tired voice "I...hate...intru...ders." before his eyes began to focus and he said in a more sophisticated voice. "Can I help you?"

Flare sighed with relief before saying, "For starters, you can stop trying to destroy us." "Destroy you?" said Petaldramon before coughing "Hold on...I got something in my throat." before coughing up Impmon. "Well I never..how did he get in there?" he said surprised.

"How about we forget all about that part?" asked Impmon as he tried to wipe the saliva off him, "Bleh, I smell like tree sap." Petaldramon said "Can you PLEASE get off me? You are ruffling my leafs." The others got off him and Matt said, "Uh, could you change back to Arbormon. It's a bit hard to talk to a bushy reptile seriously."

Petaldramon glowed and shifted down to the same digimon the group had encountered back at the first town they had seen. "Hmm...last thing I remember was some annoying humans aiming a cannon at me." he said. "The cannon had a lot more punch than you thought," said Matt. "I guess. Damn sucker punch." said Arbormon.

"Well, I know you've just come to terms about being brought back from the dead," said Henry, "But there are a lot of Digimon who could use your help." "Hey, you're right," said Arbormon, "I can't stand here while innocent Digimon get hoirt, right? I gotta get back ta my village." Impmon looked gloomy at that. "Erm...that might be hard...given the humans steamrollered through it after they blasted you." he said.

"What? I's got no home now? Where am I supposed to go?" cried Arbormon. Matt said "Erm...you could go to Meteor Mountain. The towns there could always use some extra help." "Well, I suppose I's gotta go somewhere till I get my hometown back, right?" said Arbormon.

Flare said "My father would welcome any help." "Your father? Who's..." started Arbormon before he seemed to recognize her, "Ah, Flare, long time, no see." He looked at Matt and asked, "This is your new boyfriend, right?" Matt and Flare suddenly started coughing "No...we're just..." said Flare and Matt said "Friends...just friends...happy friends."

Arbormon said, "Right... So which's Meteor Mountain?" Matt pointed "That way...its just past the giant glowing crater." Ryo added "That he made." Matt glared at Ryo and said, "That was Umdramon's fault and you know it." Arbormon said "Who's da idiot who let umdramon loose?" "Her ex-boyfriend," said Impmon, pointing at Flare. Flare glared at Impmon "Saggutarimon was never my boyfriend." She said.

"I remember that guy," said Arbormon, "He was a real horse's rear, right?" Matt nodded "Does that mean 'he's a jerk'?" he muttered to Flare. "Definitely," said Flare. Matt said "You don't happen to know the fastest way to the region of darkness, do you?" "Darkness Region? Oh yeah, I head over there sometimes when I need ta talk with Loewmon," said Arbormon. Takato said "And...which way is it?"

Arbormon paused and looked around. "Let's see, from the tree, and that boulder, yada, yada..." he muttered before saying, "Now I remembers. Head north till ya see a mountain on the horizon, there oughta be a river to the east of ya. Cross it and then you'll find a big hole a half day's walk from there. That is if ya's just walking there. Go through the hole and you'll be in dark country."

Matt said "Oh...thats cool...I'm sure me and Flare could do with a swim." he stopped as he saw everyones expressions. "What did I say?" he added. "Oh, nothing," said Rika in a sly grin, "Nothing important. By the way, I believe I won the bet." Flare said "Actually, you both lost." "Excuse me?" asked Matt. "You both failed to last even one night." said Flare promptly.

"Hey, I would have lasted fine if Mr. Mulch didn't try to munch me," said Matt before turning to Arbormon and said, "No offense." "None taken, bub." said Arbormon. "So if Matt and Rika both lost, that means they both have to pay," said Takato. Matt and Rika said "What?" "As I recall, the loser had to give the winner a piggyback ride for an entire day and has to admit something to the winner," said Ryo. Rika and Matt looked at each other. "I think we should call this even." said Matt sagely.

"Right, it's not like we can both carry each other at the same time," said Rika. Flare laughed and said in a teasing tone "See? You can work together." Matt and Rika glanced at each other before Rika muttered, "Lunatic," and Matt muttered, "Spoiled brat."

**Cerberus Planetside Headquarters**

Dr Kurata looked at the reports. "Their beacons are moving towards a major area...why?" he said before looking up at Dante. "I can't say," said Dante, "They're straying away from their usual area. They ought to have come back to Meteor Mountain by now." Dante added "We should have killed them as soon as we knew they had survived the shuttle crash. One cruise missile strike from orbit and no more problem."

"I wish it were that simple, but Mr. Lynch is too valuable," said Kurata. "Oh please...you said it yourself. There was only a 3 percent chance that he'd be able to clone jump back to his normal clones if we killed him." said Dante. Kurata yelled "BUT THATS ENOUGH REASON TO BE CAREFUL!"

"Well, we can at least get rid of the brats, right?" said Dante, "They've served their purpose." "No...they're too close...he might be caught in the crossfire. There's a geothermal plant and magma extractor in their path...if your men see them...kill them...but leave Mr Lynch...alive." said Kurata. "And if...others should try to intervene?" asked Dante. "Kill them," said Kurata. "I was hoping you'd say that," said Dante.

Dante walked out and Kurata said "Finally." before going to look at the window. He sighed as he heard th door open. "What now...?" he said, his voice trailing away as he saw a digimon standing over what looked like dante's unconscious form. "What? Who let this creature in here?" demanded Kurata, going for the security alarm.

The digimon laughed and walked towards Kurata who scrabbled at his desk to pull out a pistol. "GET AWAY!" he screamed, firing. The Digimon blocked the bullet with one gauntlet. "Wrong weapon, fool," it said. Kurata ran to the intercom. "SECURITY...WHAT DO I PAY YOU FOR?" he screamed into it before throwing the pistol at the digimon who grabbed and crushed it with ease. "Here is a gift." he said, throwing a crystal at Kurata's feet where it shattered.

Kurata looked down to see a black mist coming from it. The mist started floating up to Kurata. Kurata coughed as the mist surrounded him, not noticing it flowing into his mouth and nose. Several security officers ran into the room, plasma rifles in hand. Kurata yelled "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? SHOOT IT!" he screamed, pointing at the digimon.

The officers aimed their rifles and blasted the Digimon, which quickly was reduced to black smoke. One of the officers ran up to Kurata. "Sir...are you ok? We'll check the emp shield for weaknesses and find out which techie let it get this way." he said. "Yes, and when you do, put that man inside a Numemon or some other repulsive creature," said Kurata before yawning, "I think I need a nap now."

The officers looked at each other at Kurata's unusual choice of punishment, he usually preferring to have the offendor and his relatives all sacked. "Are you sure you're ok?" said the officer. Kurata said distantly "I'm perfectly fine." the officers not noticing the faint red glow in Kurata's eyes.

**End of Chapter 7**

**It looks like Kurata and Cerberus already know where they are...but what was done to him? Find out next time...**


End file.
